A 49-YEAR-OLD Nicosia mechanic was yesterday fined €800 after he was found guilty of trespassing.
Costas Glykis was found guilty of entering Ioanna Karsera’s garden and trying to harass her.
According to the charges the 49-year-old and Karsera had been friends up until 2005 when he attacked and assaulted her over some financial differences causing her actual bodily harm. She had to be hospitalised because of the 2005 attack and filed a charges against Glykis, whereby the latter pleaded guilty.
However the pair’s saga did not end there. Karsera, who continues to receive treatment for health problems due to the assault, filed a civil suit against Glykis for compensation. When the 49-year-old learned of what his former friend had done he tried to harass her to withdraw the suit. The on February 1, 2008, while Karsera was at her brother’s sports shop, Glykis came in after her and started shouting at her and warning her that there would be trouble if she continued with her civil suit. Apparently he banged his hands on the table and shook his fists in her face. In his defence Glykis said he had only been in the shop to buy his wife a tracksuit and that he had not known Karsera was there.
A few days later Karsera received threatening phone calls from the suspect and he followed her in his car. On February 8 of the same year, Glykis entered her garden and walked right up to her kitchen window, while incessantly ring her phone.
The court dismissed the February 1 charges and only found Glykis guilty of trespassing on Karsera’s property with the intention of frightening her a week later.
The judge said the offense was a serious one which saw a penalty of up to two years imprisonment. Nevertheless having taken into account the particulars of the case and the fact that Glykis had stayed in the complainant’s garden and not actually entered her home was a mitigating factor, she said.
“Therefore it is with great difficulty that I have decided to impose a fine of €800,” the judge said. The 49-year-old was also instructed to pay €160 in court expenses before he was dismissed.
