Police struggle for leads in rape investigation

POLICE yesterday still had no strong leads in the alleged gang rape of a 14-year-old girl in Limassol.

The incident occurred at shortly after 11 on Saturday night on a beach near the popular teenage hangout of Galatex, in the Yermasoyia area.

The teenager and her 15-year-old boyfriend were on the beach when they were accosted by three strangers.

According to the children, one of the men attacked the boy with a broken bottle, demanding in broken Greek that he hand over his money, police said. At the same time, one of the other men threatened the girl, throwing her to the ground.

The boy managed to run away to call for help, but when he returned a short while later with friends, the trio and 14-year-old girl were nowhere to be found, so he called the police.

Police arrived at the scene immediately and started searching for the missing girl and her three kidnappers.

The 14-year-old was found by her girlfriends not long afterwards. She had managed to escape from her attackers, and was taken to the police station.
Evidence gathered from both crime scenes has been sent for forensic testing.

The men are described as being aged between 20 and 25, 1.70-1.75 metres tall, dark, and possibly foreign. Limassol CID is investigating.

Limassol police say they have DNA material from the rapist. Since the weekend, detectives have been calling in a number of people matching the suspected ethnicity and description of the principal attacker and taking DNA swabs from them.

A source at Limassol CID told the Mail yesterday that they had brought in “several” people for questioning, at least some of whom were of “Middle Eastern extraction”.

Police Chief Charalambos Koulentis yesterday called the incident a “heinous crime” that “affects us all”.

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