Cypriot faces serial rape charges in UK

CYPRIOT police have denied reports that officers from the British Crown Prosecution Service will fly to Cyprus to carry out further investigations into charges against a Cypriot man suspected of raping eight women in the London area.

Police spokesman Demetis Demetriou told the Cyprus Mail that the Cypriot police had not been informed that the British authorities would launch investigations on the island. “As far as we know, a Cypriot man living in London was arrested in May. We have not heard any word that British Crown Prosecution Services will start investigating in Cyprus.”

The thirty-four-year-old builder, a resident of Tottenham originally from the Limassol area, appeared before St Albans Magistrates last August in connection with the rape of eight women.

A 19-year-old woman was raped in April near the junction of Mill Green Lane and Ascot Lane in Hatfield, in what was described in court as a premeditated attack, while a 20-year-old St Albans woman suffered a similar ordeal, also in April, in Bernards Heath, St Albans.

Known to the Cypriot authorities, the suspect also faces charges for six other alleged attacks, most of which were committed in the London area. A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police said: “We have been working with Hertfordshire police, following a year-long operation.”

Proceedings have been put on hold while more forensic tests are carried out on the women’s clothing and the suspect will be remanded in custody until December when he will appear in court in relation to the charges.

The trial, which could involve eight victims, is set to last up to six weeks.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.