London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Jul 10, 2025

The Cyprus rape case is a chilling reminder of the price women pay for speaking up

The Cyprus rape case is a chilling reminder of the price women pay for speaking up

It is impossible to feel justice has been done for the British teenager in the Cyprus rape case, says Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff
All she wanted was one last summer adventure before buckling down to the beginnings of adult life.

If all had gone to plan, the 19-year-old would have flown home from Cyprus with nothing more than a few lively gap year stories to show for it, and by now would presumably have been happily settled into university life.

Instead it is by all accounts a broken young woman who returns to Britain this week. She still bears the stain of her conviction for supposedly lying about being gang-raped in the resort of Ayia Napa, despite grave concerns about how that verdict was reached. The suspended sentence she has just been handed looks suspiciously like a fudge designed to get Cyprus out of a politically embarrassing situation, allowing her to leave the country and international outrage to die down while resolving none of the questions raised by her conviction.

False accusations of rape do happen, although they are vanishingly rare. And of course, where they are made deliberately, they should carry serious consequences. But the facts of this case are so disturbing that it’s impossible to feel justice has been done. The judge talked magnanimously of giving a teenager a “second chance”, presenting the fine and four-month suspended sentence he dished out as a gesture of compassion, given that he could, in theory, have jailed her. But many will ask whether she really got a first chance. This is, after all, a young woman who retracted her original allegation of rape only after a lengthy police interrogation with no lawyer present. A pathologist testified that she had injuries consistent with being attacked. The group of young Israeli men she originally accused of bursting in – while she was having consensual sex in a hotel room with one of their friends – and raping her were not required to testify, yet still the judge seemed convinced she wasn’t telling the truth.

So the dispiriting message conveyed to young women travelling abroad, and not just to Cyprus, is that if something terrible happens then it’s probably safest not to tell. Better to cry your tears in private and jump on the first plane home than play Russian roulette with a system that might not be on your side. It’s daunting enough for rape victims in Britain to face reliving everything in court, but how many would be brave enough to risk ending up like this young woman, who spent weeks on remand in prison while the men she accused flew home, and is now said to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and hallucinations?

Her lawyers are expected to lodge an appeal now, but that could take years to grind its way through the system, and in the meantime she must plan for a career that isn’t incompatible with a criminal conviction. Her identity, which has been withheld by the press, is bandied about in the darker recesses of the internet; film of her having consensual sex with her Israeli boyfriend in Ayia Napa was posted on porn sites. Her lawyers are frank about how hard it will be for her to put all this behind her. In Cyprus, meanwhile, this must look like a missed chance to reform what women’s groups say is a criminal justice system sorely in need of it. It’s not just tourists but women permanently living on the island who could have benefited from an honest examination of what went wrong in this case.

In the circumstances it may be some time before British parents feel relaxed about their daughters jetting off to Ayia Napa for a post A-level summer of partying. But cheap sun, sea, cocktails and clubbing are a potent draw for teenagers filled with the blithe sense of invincibility that comes with being 18, and watching the world open up in front of you. It would be wholly wrong to tell our daughters to narrow their horizons and stay home, and even if we tried, it’s unlikely they would listen at an age where parental nagging is just white noise. (Although it wouldn’t hurt for parents of sons to deliver some blunt reminders about consent before packing their boys off on a gap year.)

So after a while, calls to boycott Cyprus will probably fade from public consciousness, not least because it’s hardly the only exotic destination in which young women might fear an unsympathetic hearing from the criminal justice system. If the idea behind this suspended sentence was to make a difficult diplomatic incident go away, while shielding the island’s tourism industry from any more bad publicity, then the depressing truth is that it will probably work in the long run. Ayia Napa, and all the places like it around the world, will party on.

But what remains is an uncomfortable reminder of the price too often paid for speaking up about sexual violence; how often blame and shame clings, however unfairly, to the woman involved. It will be rather longer before most women are capable of forgetting that.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
NVIDIA Achieves Historic Milestone as First Company Valued at $4 Trillion
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Linda Yaccarino Steps Down as CEO of X After Two Years
US Imposes New Tariffs on Brazilian Exports Amid Political Tensions
Azerbaijan and Armenia are on the brink of a historic peace deal.
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Weinstein Victim’s Lawyer Says MeToo Movement Still Strong
U.S. Enacts Sweeping Tax and Spending Legislation Amid Trade Policy Shifts
Football Mourns as Diogo Jota and Brother André Silva Laid to Rest in Portugal
Labour Expected to Withdraw Support for Special Needs Funding Model
Leaked Audio Reveals Tory Aide Defending DEI Record
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
London Stock Exchange Faces Historic Low in Initial Public Offerings
A new online platform has emerged in the United Kingdom, specifically targeting Muslim men seeking virgin brides
Trump Celebrates Independence Day with B-2 Flyover and Signs Controversial Legislation
Boris Johnson Urges Conservatives to Ignore Farage
SNP Ordered to Update Single-Sex Space Guidance Within Days
Starmer Set to Reject Calls for Wealth Taxes
Stolen Century-Old Rolls-Royce Recovered After Hotel Theft
Macron Presses Starmer to Recognise Palestinian State
Labour Delayed Palestine Action Ban Over Riot Concerns
Swinney’s Tax Comments ‘Offensive to Scots’, Say Tories
High Street Retailers to Enforce Bans on Serial Shoplifters
Music Banned by Henry VIII to Be Performed After 500 Years
Steve Coogan Says Working Class Is Being ‘Ethnically Cleansed’
Home Office Admits Uncertainty Over Visa Overstayer Numbers
JD Vance Questions Mandelson Over Reform Party’s Rising Popularity
Macron to Receive Windsor Carriage Ride in Royal Gesture
Labour Accused of ‘Hammering’ Scots During First Year in Power
BBC Head of Music Stood Down Amid Bob Vylan Controversy
Corbyn Eyes Hard-Left Challenge to Starmer’s Leadership
London Tube Trains Suspended After Major Fire Erupts Nearby
Richard Kemp: I Felt Safer in Israel Under Attack Than in the UK
Cyclist Says Police Cited Human Rights Act for Riding No-Handed
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Musk Battles to Protect Tesla Amid Trump Policy Threats
Air France-KLM Acquires Majority Stake in Scandinavian Airlines
UK Educators Sound Alarm on Declining Child Literacy
Shein Fined €40 Million in France Over Misleading Discounts
Brazil’s Lula Visits Kirchner During Argentina House Arrest
Trump Scores Legislative Win as House Passes Tax Reform Bill
Keir Starmer Faces Criticism After Rocky First Year in Power
DJI Launches Heavy-Duty Coaxial Quadcopter with 80 kg Lift Capacity
U.S. Senate Approves Major Legislation Dubbed the 'Big Beautiful Bill'
Largest Healthcare Fraud Takedown in U.S. History Announced by DOJ
×