A LARNACA Criminal Court will next week decide the fate of two British tourists accused of involvement in the death of a local teenager last July.
Yesterday, the three-judge panel ruled they would decide on December 22 whether Luke Atkinson, 22, and Michael Binnington, 21, took part with common intent in a revenge attack that killed Christos Papiris, 17, and injured Marios Demetriou, 18, in Protaras on July 21.
Yesterday saw the summing up of the two defence lawyers, George Georgiou and George Papaioannou, as well as State Prosecutor Eleni Zachariadou.
Julian Harrington, 38, Atkinson, and Binnington are accused of deliberately ramming the youths’ moped with their hire car in what is believed to have been a revenge attack after their friend was injured in brawl at a disco two hours earlier. Police say Papiris and Demetriou had nothing to do with the fight.
All three Britons have been charged with committing an illegal act which led to the death of Papiris, and causing grievous bodily harm to Demetriou.
During the trial, Harrington, who is the uncle of the other two defendants, changed his plea to guilty. He will be sentenced on the same day as Atkinson and Binnington.
Addressing the panel of three judges – Judge Antonis Liatsos, Judge Stallo Hadjiyiannis and Judge Charalambos Poyiatzis – Georgiou said “there is no witness account indicating that the defendants had shown intent to cause the grievous bodily harm of Demetriou or the manslaughter of Papiris.”
Georgiou said the defendants “had nothing to do with the collision with the moped and that they had no way of stopping the collision.”
Binnington’s lawyer also claimed his client would have been too drunk to have had intent after it was proved that he had drunk seven beers, four cocktails and two ‘ouzo specials’ before the incident at several bars in Protaras.
Backing up Georgiou’s argument was Papaioannou, who is defending Atkinson, who told the court that there was insufficient evidence to suggest his client also had common intent in the incident.
Countering the defence claim, was State Prosecutor Zachariadou told the court that the witness accounts and testimonies given to the court showed without doubt the two defendant’s intent when they got into the car.
The verdict is due on December 22.
