THE FAMILY of Louise Jensen, the Danish tour guide viciously murdered 11 years ago in Ayia Napa, have told a British newspaper they are appalled to find out that their daughter’s murderers would walk free next summer.
The 23-year-old woman was raped and then battered to death with a spade by British soldiers Justin Fowler, Alan Ford and Geoff Pernell before being left for dead in September 1994.
Jensen was working as a local rep for a Scandinavian company and had only been on the island for seven months before being picked up at a petrol station then taken to a secluded area, where the drunken soldiers raped and murdered her.
The three men were sentenced to life by a Larnaca court, but later appealed and had their their sentence reduced to 25 years by the Supreme Court, which reduced the charge to manslaughter. Now, the three men are set to be released this coming August after having spent just 12 years behind bars and having their sentenced shortened for good behaviour.
Speaking to the Sunday Express, the victim’s father Poul Jensen said he was disgusted with the decision.
“I am almost speechless. What kind of justice is this? These monsters were sentenced to life, quite properly. They should be serving 25 years at the very least and they would be if the trial was in Denmark.”
During the trial, the three men had claimed that they were all drunk during the attack. Jensen had received 15 fatal blows after being stripped naked.
Her mother Annette Jensen also said, “All her old friends are now approaching the best years of their lives. What could she have done? We will never know. Three men did this to us and now they are about to be able to get their own lives back. This is not justice.
This is criminal itself and should not be happening. Britain should know that its subjects have devastated our lives and that the life of our beautiful girl is only deemed to be worth 10 years of theirs. This hurts so badly. There are not enough words to express how I feel.”
Marios Matsakis was state coroner at the time of the attack and served as a key witness in the trial. Speaking to the Cyprus Mail yesterday, Matsakis said the sight of Louise Jensen’s beaten body was one he would never forget.
“Justice is not being served by the early release of these murderers. I will remember the body of Louise Jensen for the rest of my life and it is crime I shall never forget. I remember that her father and brother gave me a rose to put on top of her body as she had been beaten in such a brutal way.
“They had asked me to take a tuft of her hair and give it to them and I remember taking that hair, washing it over and over again to get the blood and dirt off.”
Matsakis questioned how the system could even contemplate releasing the three men back into society.
“The release of these men makes me think about what kind of society we are living in to let these murderers walk out of prison after serving just 11 or 12 years. They didn’t just kill her, they brutally tortured her and did things to her that I cannot even speak about.”
Justice Minister Doros Theodorou and Attorney-general Petros Klerides were not available for comment yesterday.
