‘Police pressured father to confess to son’s murder’

POLICE investigators piled pressure onto a man to confess that he had premeditated the murder of his son, a Nicosia court heard yesterday, allegedly dismissing lawyers as “a waste of money”.

The claims were voiced during the trial of Christodoulos Charalambous, charged with the manslaughter of his 21-year-old son Yiannos.

The State Prosecution had initially hoped to charge Charalambous with premeditated murder, but the charge was yesterday downgraded to manslaughter, which can carry a maximum sentence of 25 years depending on the seriousness of the offence.

Charalambous claims he acted in self-defence when he struck a fatal blow to his son’s head with a hoe following a heated argument on July 21 outside their home in the Nicosia suburb of Makedonitissa.

The court previously heard of the father’s traumatic experiences at the hands of his violent son, who had made his family’s life “a living nightmare”.

But continuing her testimony yesterday, Yiannos’ sister Eleni Grigoriou said police investigators Costakis Constantinides and Carolina Nicolaou had tried to mislead her into persuading her father to sign a confession admitting to the premeditated murder of Yiannos.

“He kept telling us that my father has to sign [the confession]. He was telling us ‘the charge is premeditated murder and we have the case locked. I have two witnesses’. He made me think that the case was already finished,” Grigoriou told the court.

She then spoke of the Constantinides’ opinion of lawyers, which the investigator allegedly described as “useless”.

“‘I have studied law so I know what I’m talking about,’ he told us. He said he was surprised our lawyers had not been persuading our father to confess and give a statement. He also kept telling us that lawyers were just there to take your money.”

The defendant’s daughter also spoke of the other investigator, who had reportedly told her to persuade her father into giving a statement because the police “only want the best for him”.

Yesterday, the court also heard more insight into the victim from Grigoriou who described her younger brother as “bitter, selfish and problematic in every sense of the word”.

She continued: “He has always been a problem for as long as I can remember. Even in nursery school, he was beating up all the other children and this continued all the way into high school and later in the army. His violent temper would escalate every time he got drunk, which was almost every night.

“My father often feared for his life and I remember one time when he called me and told me that Yiannos had tried to run him over with his car. He was so scared that he would sometimes not want to go home after work.”

During the trial, the court also heard other accounts of Yiannos’ violent tendencies, which included smashing furniture, demanding and obtaining with threats of violence cars, mobile phones, motorbikes and money and putting a knife to his father’s throat and threatening to kill him.

Yiannos was imprisoned for a month last December for beating an army sergeant and swearing at his army commander during his stint in the National Guard.

He also appeared in court for assaulting police officers, drunk driving and causing a traffic accident through drunk driving.

Yesterday, the court also called State Psychiatrist Agathe Valanidou, who examined the defendant after the incident.

“The defendant was not able to communicate properly because he was in such a state of shock in the beginning. He resembled a man who was dying and would frequently cry.

After prescribing him valiums, we later deemed him worthy to stand trial,” she told the court.

The trial continues on Friday.