‘Multiple bruises found on a young British woman who alleged she was gang-raped on holiday in Cyprus leave ‘no doubt’ that she had suffered a violent assault, according to a pathologist.
The student, who faces up to a year in jail after being found guilty of lying, insists she was held down and raped by up to 12 Israeli youths at a budget hotel in Ayia Napa.
Some 35 bruises found across the 19-year-old’s legs, arms and buttocks are said to be consistent with her having suffered a violent sexual assault. Marks were also found around her knees and eyes.
They were seen in a diagram, compiled by a pathologist who saw photographs of the injuries, in a Cypriot court as she was tried for public mischief.
However, the evidence was dismissed by the judge whose handling of the case before her conviction last week has come under fire in an escalating diplomatic row.
Bruises on the teenager’s torso are missing because, inexplicably, police took no pictures of her without her shirt on.
The girl’s mother says her daughter is suffering from PTSD caused by the months of her legal ordeal, while Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has voiced his ‘serious concerns’ over her treatment ahead of her sentencing on Tuesday.
Her psychologist, Dr Christine Tizzard, fears the teenager will be at a heightened risk of suicide if she is jailed this week, the Sunday Times reported.
Dr Tizzard added that the student is in urgent need of mental health care and is ‘physically and mentally getting worse every day’.
‘As with anyone who has got this level of PTSD, the high level of hyperarousal in the system makes them very unpredictable,’ she said. ‘It is a very significant concern’.
She added that the teenager, who she assessed for the defence over 10 Skype and phone calls, fulfilled ‘all the criteria’ of the condition, including experiencing nightmares and suicidal thoughts.
Pathologist Marios Matsakis, an expert witness for the woman’s defence, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I have no doubts that violence was exercised on the body.’ She added that the data from the diagram ‘is related to rape’.’
