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TEEN'S TORMENT
Ayia Napa Brit says ‘gang of rapists were like a pack of wolves’ and she ‘wanted to die’ after ‘brutal attack’
THE British teen convicted of making up gang rape claims in Cyprus today reveals the full horror of the brutal attack and her prison nightmare.
And the girl, then 18, says: “I just wanted to die.”
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In her first full interview since being freed to return to the UK earlier this month, she tells how she was attacked by 12 Israelis who fell on her like a “pack of wolves”.
In horrific detail, she recalls one of her attackers used his knees to pin down her shoulders on a grimy bed as his friends “lined up” to rape her.
The brave victim, who was eventually given a suspended sentence, said: “I thought if I don’t get out of here now, I’m going to die.
“I don’t know how many of the 12 raped me. You don’t count, you couldn’t count.
“They were lining up, excited, talking and shouting in Hebrew. I was trying to fight them off but I just couldn’t.
“They were like a pack of animals — a pack of wolves.”
I thought if I don’t get out of here now, I’m going to die.
Now 19 and back home in Derbyshire with her dog, the girl details how Cypriot cops forced her to sign a “confession” that she had lied about the gang rape.
A six-month court battle followed, and she lost 2½st locked up for five weeks in a hellish Cypriot jail.
She also shares extracts from her harrowing prison diary — which she wrote to cope with the trauma of being locked up on remand while suffering post-traumatic stress.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, she also paid tribute to the “overwhelming” support of our readers, who helped raise more than £150,000 to fund her legal fight.
She has now lodged an appeal to overturn her conviction.
The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, vowed: “I told the truth. The fight has just begun.”
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Her ordeal unfolded after she and pals flew to Ayia Napa hoping to get work while holidaying.
'NORMAL HOLIDAY ROMANCE'
After a few days partying, she and five friends were drinking in their hotel when a group of 20 Israelis approached them.
She later hooked up with an Israeli boy nicknamed “Sam”.
Describing it as “a normal holiday romance”, the teen recalled how it later turned sinister.
She agreed to go back with him to the “grotty” hotel room he shared with at least four others at about 2.45am.
The girl said: “I knew he was leaving the next day so we started kissing. About five minutes later, I heard the sound of the room door opening and turned around.
“He grabbed me and threw me on the bed.
“He pinned my shoulders down by kneeling on them — he was well-built, strong — I couldn’t move. From under his knees, I turned and saw the light growing from the doorway.
“I was flailing around, trying to move and cross my legs because I was now really panicking.
“The others, there were 12 of them, came over to the bed.
“Some of them grabbed my ankles, some held down my knees and they ripped my bodysuit.
“I was trying to cross my legs all the time and every time I did, Sam would get angry. He grabbed one of my knees himself at one point. Then they took it in turns.”
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Battle by mum
THE teenager’s mum was on a train when her daughter called to tell of her ordeal.
The mother’s voice trembled as she told The Sun: “It was awful, awful.”
She then jetted to Cyprus and battled the prison system for the right to visit her daughter. At the same time, she was liaising with campaigners back home to raise money.
The teenager’s family helped raise 20,000 euros to win bail. She stayed in 19 Airbnb properties while not allowed to leave Cyprus, with her mum almost always at her side.
After watching in disbelief as a “kangaroo court” convicted her daughter, the mum became a spokeswoman for their fight to get her home.
Her face expressionless, the girl’s eyes deadened as she described the horror. “The whole thing lasted about 20 minutes. Somehow I managed to get off the bed and I crawled like a crab across the floor.”
After she escaped and raised the alarm, cops accused her of making it up.
'FORCED INTO A CONFESSION'
They called her into a deserted police station and held her without a lawyer for eight hours.
Terrified and unable to speak to family or friends, she was then ordered to write and sign a confession — dictated to her by a male cop who stood menacingly over her.
She questioned some of the wording and recalls: “He just lost it and shouted, ‘No! You write what I tell you to write!’”
She told The Sun: “I knew straight away I’d done something really, really wrong by signing it.
“I was panicking by now and I told a social worker in the police station what had happened. But she just said, ‘There’s nothing you can do now.’”
The Israelis had been arrested but were released to fly home while she was charged.
She was convinced a judge would see her “confession” had been written under duress.
But there followed a six-month ordeal, with the teen slung first into prison and then held under house arrest.
I told a social worker in the police station what had happened, but she just said, ‘There’s nothing you can do now.’
She wrote in her diary: “I dream during the day of my cold duvet at home, the plush feel of the down between my fingers and against my face. I have nightmares every night, I dream I’m being raped again.
“The doctors prescribe me drugs, I take them in the morning, at lunch and finally at night.
“Maybe half an hour or an hour or so after I take them, they numb everything. I still feel scared, I still feel their touch but now I want to sleep — but I have nightmares every time. I’m constantly scared.”
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Her extracts went on: “At night I lie awake, sleep will not take me.
“I can see their hands grabbing me, touching me. It makes me sick.”
The girl was suffering from PTSD and became dangerously thin. She added in the interview: “I lost 2½ stone in prison. I was really thin when I came out.
“They put me on drugs, on Xanax, even though I didn’t want to. Most prisoners were drugged, it seemed they thought that was easier. It gave me horribly vivid dreams, hallucinations.”
She was released on bail after almost five weeks. Her family had to raise 20,000 euros to secure her freedom.
The girl and her mum then moved around 19 Airbnb’s across Cyprus, paid for entirely out of their own funds as the court process dragged agonisingly slowly.
Finally, despite the flimsiest of prosecution cases, she was convicted of a “public mischief” charge last month by a male judge who sat alone without a jury.
Her ordeal finally ended on January 7 when she flew home hours after getting a suspended sentence.
The girl’s lawyers hope huge flaws in the prosecution case will eventually clear her name.
LONG ROAD TO RECOVERY
Meanwhile, the Israelis, aged between 16 and 19, were back home within days of the attack.
Some celebrated with champagne and chanted: “The Brit is a whore.” No one was charged over the rape.
She had dreamt of becoming an anti-terror cop and had won a place at university to read criminology last September.
But her shattered health means she faces a long road to recovery.
Her PTSD can be triggered just by the sound of men speaking in a foreign accent nearby.
She can also spend up to 20 hours asleep a day, a known symptom of trauma.
How holiday led to hell
July 10, 2019: Then aged 18, she flies out to Ayia Napa, Cyprus, for working holiday.
July 18: Gang rape horror takes place. She reports it and 12 Israelis are later arrested.
July 25: Five Israelis freed without charge.
July 28: After eight hours of quizzing the girl and denying her a lawyer, police dictate a statement retracting her story and order her to sign. She is charged and taken to a detention centre. Remaining seven Israelis are released and fly home.
July 30: Girl appears in court charged with “public mischief” and is put on remand at Nicosia prison.
August 5: The Sun is the first to reveal details of how police had pressured the teenager to sign a confession.
August 29: Teenager freed on bail of 20,000 euros but not allowed to leave island.
December 30: She is convicted by a male judge of public mischief.
January 7, 2020: She gets four-month jail sentence, suspended for three years, and finally flies home.
January 16: Her legal team lodges appeal at Cyprus’s Supreme Court.
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The teen is being treated by top consultant psychologist Dr Christine Tizzard and has been warned her therapy could take years.
But she said: “I’m getting to know my friends again. We’ve been out and I’m thinking about my future. I’d like to go back to college maybe but I just need time to breathe.
“The most I can manage is going to the gym with friends and spending time with my collie Kai. I can’t think further ahead than that yet.”
- TO donate to the teen’s legal battle, visit the website .
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Cyprus rape case – Brit teen free to fly home after being spared jail over Ayia Napa gang rape claim
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