Cabaret owner convicted of pimping

A NICOSIA man was yesterday found guilty of pimping one of the women working at his cabaret in Strovolos.

Grigoris Stylianou, 44, faced three charges but was only found guilty of the third – earning money from prostituting a second party. He was acquitted of the other two charges, forcing a person into prostitution and using his establishment for the purpose of earning money from prostitution.

Stylianou was arrested on October 21, 2005 when undercover CID officers went into his cabaret as part of a sting operation, and one of the girls offered to have sex with one of the men working with CID in the operation.

The woman arrested with Stylianou initially told questioning officers she wasn’t prostituting herself but only giving customers private lap dances. She later told officers that she had lied in her first statement and that she wanted to make a second statement.
Her second statement admitted she had sex with customers in a private room for £20, of which £5 would go to her and £15 to Stylianou. She added she would go with around four to five different men every night.

The defence had argued that Stylianou was set up to look like he was pimping girls. He claimed the police were out to get him because he wasn’t offering special prices at his shop, and argued he was not the owner of a cabaret but a nightclub, where girls gave shows but did not prostitute themselves.

Judge Lemonia Kaoutzani agreed the accused was earning off women prostituting themselves, but felt the prosecution had not proved he had forced the girls into having sex or that he was using his premises specifically for prostitution.
Sentencing takes place on March 14.

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