POLICE are hunting for a Nicosia serial stalker who has terrorised hundreds of women over several years, police chief Iacovos Papacostas said yesterday.
When found, the man, known to women as Christos or Christodoulos, will face criminal prosecution, he said.
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail, Papacostas said an arrest warrant had been issued for the suspect on Tuesday, but that he had not yet been found.
“Nicosia and Larnaca police are on the lookout for this man,” he said.
The police chief said the authorities had prepared a detailed file on the suspect’s history, including all complaints made against him since 2001, with the intention of prosecuting him and taking him off the streets.
Papacostas said although women in Nicosia and Larnaca had made complaints against the suspect, who has been described as “emotionally and psychologically disturbed”, many of them had not given written statements, blocking police from launching a criminal case.
“Other cases were too weak, in that there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him. For example, someone saying they got a phone call and knew it was him simply because they recognised his voice is not enough to go on because it can’t be proved,” he explained.
The police chief said that in 2003 the same suspect had been prosecuted on the testimony of four women and that he’d been sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment suspended for three years.
According to the criminal file, in March this year, Strovolos police took the suspect for a compulsory psychiatric evaluation, but he was given the all clear.
“The doctor said there was nothing wrong with him and that all he needed was regular outpatient visits,” Papacostas said.
Nevertheless, the police chief said that following the recent increase in harassment reports made by numerous women, the authorities had every intention of ensuring that “this man who is very bothersome is stopped”.
Papacostas added that any women who had been victims of the stalker and wished to come forward and file a complaint against him should contact any district Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
Officers close to the investigation believe the authorities will likely seek to have the man committed as he appears to be psychologically unstable.
The suspect, who often poses as an insurance salesman, is said to harass his victims with incessant phone calls from different phone numbers at any time of the day, waits for the women outside their homes in the morning, follows them to work, shows up at their workplace unannounced, sends them flowers, asks them out, sends text messages, and on some occasions has become verbally abusive and damaged property.
Although he has never actually physically harmed any of the women, the majority said they felt frightened that their every move was being watched by a stranger and by the fact that they had no control to stop him.
Some of his victims have also expressed the opinion that the man, who used to be fireman until he was dismissed, must be under the police’s protection since he has yet to be locked up. This is an accusation the authorities categorically deny.
The Cyprus Mail received reports from victims that his stalking dates back as far as 1996.
