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Daily Record
Daily Record
World
Jeremy Armstrong

Cyprus holiday rape row girl 'may have been drugged' according to expert witness

The British girl at the centre of the “gang rape” case in Cyprus may have been drugged before the alleged attack, according to an expert witness.

Dr Marios Matsakis, 65, a forensic pathologist, told of his concerns about the way the 19-year-old, who can’t be named, had been treated.

He branded the judge as “woman-hating”, adding that the failure to properly examine evidence against 12 Israeli youths had made him “ashamed as a Cypriot”.

He said: “It is a possibility she’d been drugged. It had not been fully investigated. It is another aspect which wasn’t fully explored.”

He said the “miscarriage of justice” came as judge Michalis Papathanasiou “excluded rape from the start”.

Dr Matsakis added: “How could he do that when he didn’t know if the girl was drugged then raped? It would explain some of her injuries and appearance.”

The teenager was filmed as she had consensual sex with one of the group after a holiday romance.

In evidence, she told how one of the youths had knelt on her shoulders to pin her down during the alleged attack in a hotel in Ayia Napa on July 17.

But she claimed police forced her to withdraw her statement.

Evidence of injuries to her upper body was not taken as she wore a top when she was examined.

Dr Matsakis said: “I said the injuries were consistent with rape.”

The girl faces up to a year in jail after police said she made up the attack to hide her embarrassment over the video.

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