Voyeur saves waiter from rape charge

By Charlie Charalambous

A PAKISTANI waiter accused of rape by a British tourist was saved from prosecution when a peeping Tom vouched for his innocence.

Paphos CID confirmed yesterday that a key witness in the rape case came forward to ensure the young waiter was freed without charge.

“A man has been arrested and since released after the British woman withdrew her complaint,” a police source said yesterday.

Earlier this week, the British tourist, who is in her twenties, visited Paphos police station to claim that she had been raped the previous evening by a Pakistani waiter who worked at a local pub.

Following the allegation, police arrested the Pakistani man and took him to the station for questioning.

Things were not looking good for the waiter until, by chance, the police secured a crucial eye-witness testimony from a confessed voyeur.

Police say he gave a detailed account of how he just happened to be passing by the holiday flat, and saw everything that went on between the couple — by peering through the key hole.

The British woman was then called back to the station on Wednesday, and told police officers that her story was false because she had been too drunk to remember anything.

“There were no charges brought against the woman for wasting police time as she had since left the island,” a police source said.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.