How can this news story be right (Aiya Napa rape allegation)?

[ThePeckOfPickledPeppersPeterPi]

I just cannot understand how a young, vulnerable woman can be treated this way by police and the court. Whatever the uncertainties, it just seems so wrong that she has been held, kept in prison, kept from family, while twelve potential rapists have been allowed home.

www.bbc.com/news/uk-50945206

There are a couple of other threads on this as well.

'Typical little England mentality on MN - it happened abroad and we all know those "foreigners" don't play by our rules....justice only gets meted out in England apparently...'

No it doesn't.

Remember the case here with the woman who was sent to prison for 'falsely retracting a rape claim' and her kids left with the man the courts accepted was a rapist?

We have a woefully low rape conviction rate.

This case is appalling though, for women to be concerned labelled xenophobic is, well. Silly.

This is exactly why there is little point in women reporting sexual assault and rape.

People are more willing to believe a young girl would freely consent to being penetrated by 12 different penises in a row than accept that she was raped.

Shameful.

I haven't followed this case carefully as so much seemed to be conjecture. What bias in treatment and judgment was done against her and in favour of the accused?

She made a report to police, and then at some point was “interviewed” by police without a lawyer present for 8 hours, with no recording of that interview made, at the end of which she signed a retraction written in very poor English which were clearly not her words.

If I were a young woman alone in a foreign county without legal representation, traumatised, in an interview situation for 8 hours being pressured into retracting and just wanting to go home, I’d probably have retracted too.

Can anyone prove she was raped? No. Is this retraction under these circumstances proof that she made it up, sufficient for a conviction? It bloody well shouldn’t be. Look at the number of confessions to crimes that are demonstrably untrue, proven later by forensic testing and so on. This statement was at best coerced. Where in the world it happened has bugger all to do with it.

I believe her.

Many of us will have had a one night stand we regretted. I have seen a lot of cases where I felt there was injustice where a young man has been charged with rape and it has seemed to me that the woman basically changed her mind the next day. Even if acquitted his life lies in ruins.
This is different though. I can understand the sex with the young man she met was consensual, but I cannot, in any circumstances imagine any woman consenting to sex with twelve men. Rapist number 12 I wonder what he thought about the young woman in front of him who had been raped 11 times?

I suspect rapists 1 through 12 do not believe, or care, that they did anything wrong.

Sadly, a lot of people mensee women as fucktoys to be used and abused with impunity. Thread after thread on here where women are asking if what happened to them was assault or rape, their experiences being minimised or dismissed as just one of those things you have to put up with when you are around men.

I believe her.

I believe her.

This case stinks

She was denied a lawyer whilst being questioned. This is well known and on none of the threads have there been more than a few posts without this being pointed out. On that basis alone, the idea that criticism of the conviction is all Little Englanding is fuckwitted.

It’s difficult - the thing about not having a lawyer present is that she was being questioned as a victim and usually victims don’t need to require legal representation.
However, at some point in that 8 hours the police switched from treating her as a victim to being a potential criminal and at that point she should have had a lawyer present - in the U.K. system.
However Cypriot police may not have the same rules and procedures as uk police and it’s hard to know if they breached any rules in the way they acted.
It’s worth noting that the foreign office has commented which is a rare thing, and leads me to suspect strongly that the conviction is unsafe.

For what it’s worth, I believe her

It isn't necessarily a question of having breached local rules, of course. It may well be that they complied with local rules that are unfit for purpose.

Also they don't record police interviews in Cyprus - why would this seem a good idea to anyone?

Maybe have a look how 'laugable' the physical evidence is, Loughers. Internal bleeding and brusing consistent with rape.

I can only assume (hope?) @Loughers was picking a fight/being goady in suggesting this is about "little Englanders".

But this passage also bothers me:

'Not a though for those twelve young men whose lives have been turned upside down - and whose lives could potentially have been destroyed.'

As well as the airport account above, there's just something instinctively troubling about the idea of sympathising primarily with a person who wants to have sex with a 19 year old after 10 (for example) of his mates have just also penetrated her. I realise that this in itself doesn't make it illegal, but... well, would you want your brother/future husband/boyfriend/son to have viewed sex with a teenager like this?

If men don't want their lives ruined by false rape accusations, they should ensure that they only have sex with people who are 100% consenting to all sexual acts (including taking photos/filming) that are taking place, none of the parties involved should be under the influence of drugs or alcohol as this can cloud judgement and affect memory, ensure they use condoms, preferably only have sex with people they know and trust and should avoid slagging off said person after the act. If they can't cope with this then they should stop having sex.

Fucking sick of victims having to justify themselves. How about we start making accused rapists prove they had consent rather than the other way round? This case, and every one like it, makes me so angry.

Four month suspended.
Fuck that.
Poor lass at least can come home though.

It’s a disgusting outcome for her this morning.

Come home. I believe you.

It's awful. I believe her. At least she's on her way home, and can start fighting back.

She wasn't allowed a lawyer or an interpreter! Surely that isn't right. I hope that she can rebuild her life and get the help she needs now that she is coming home.

cannot, in any circumstances imagine any woman consenting to sex with twelve men.

Some women do. I have one friend who at a festival made a bet with another girl as to who could have sex with the most men in one night. They both scored above 12 that night.

I believe her.

There is no fucking way any young woman would consent to having sex with 12 men!

There is no fucking way any young woman would consent to having sex with 12 men!

Why? Because that’s just too slutty? So what is the highest number of men you think a woman would consent to having sex with? Is it 2? 5? 7? Come on, if you think not one single woman would ever consent to sex with 12 men, you have to have a number in mind of the most a woman would consent to.

Just because you would not, or even most women would not does not mean no woman would.