British teenager convicted of lying about Cyprus ‘gang rape’ is to tell the full horror of ordeal

The British teenager who avoided jail after being convicted of lying about being gang-raped by 12 Israeli men in Cyprus has relived her ordeal for a TV documentary.

The woman, 19, flew home in January after being handed a four-month suspended sentence over the events of July last year in an Aiya Napa hotel room. 

And the traumatised teenager, from Derbyshire, has joined with her mother in featuring in the hour-long documentary which details her horrific story and her fight for justice. 

The British teenager who avoided jail after being convicted of lying about being gang-raped by 12 Israeli men in Cyprus has relived her ordeal for a TV documentary

Speaking after she returned to the UK, the teenager described the experience as a ‘nightmare’ and vowed the ‘fight will go on’ to clear her name.

Her mother today told The Sun about the documentary and said that her daughter is recuperating at home and is doing as ‘well as can be expected’. 

She said that both she and her daughter wanted to take part in the documentary to raise awareness about the case. 

‘We haven’t seen it yet because it’s still on the cutting room floor,’ she said. 

‘We’re both involved but are not being identified. It is something we wanted to do to bring awareness to my daughter’s plight and to help others who may have experienced a similar situation.’

The documentary is being made by Clover Films for ITV. 

The woman, 19, flew home in January after being handed a four-month suspended sentence over the events of July last year in an Aiya Napa hotel room

The woman, 19, flew home in January after being handed a four-month suspended sentence over the events of July last year in an Aiya Napa hotel room 

The film company declined to comment when approached by MailOnline but confirmed the documentary is being made.

ITV have been approached for comment. 

The mother added that the family is waiting anxiously for her daughter’s appeal against her conviction to be heard and that their lawyers have put in ‘skeleton’ arguments. 

Her daughter would not be returning to Cyprus for the appeal hearing, which is expected to be held in two months, she said. 

The news comes after horrific details emerged of the teenager’s ordeal.

She had been in a consensual relationship with semi-pro footballer Shimon Yusufov, also 19, while in Cyprus to work and for a holiday. 

Timeline: Six month ordeal of British woman ‘raped’ by 12 Israelis

July 2019

The young woman from Derbyshire heads to Ayia Napa for a holiday before she is due to start university in September. She meets an Israeli footballer and they have a holiday romance. 

Wednesday July 17 2019

The 19-year-old goes to the police and claims that she was pinned down and raped by up to 12 men, including her new lover, in the early hours of that morning. 

These dozen men, aged between 15 and 22, are arrested and remanded in custody.  

Thursday July 17

Five of the men are freed after police say there is no DNA evidence linking them to the alleged rape.

Saturday July 27

The teenager, who had been told to stay in Cyprus, was asked to give a statement to police. She says she is but is then subjected to eight hours of question – and a request for a lawyer is not agreed to.

She was then charged ‘giving a false statement over an imaginary offence’ after giving a written confession to detectives

Sunday July 28

The remaining seven Israeli men are released and rushed back to their home country  

Tuesday July 30

The teenager appears in court and is remanded in custody having been formally charged with ‘public mischief’ – an offence for lying to police

Tuesday August 6

She then revokes her confession claiming she was coerced into giving it

Tuesday August 27

After five weeks in a Cyprus jail she is bailed. She cannot leave the island and must report in to police before her trial 

Monday October 15

Her trial begins. The case is before a judge – not a jury as pressure grows in Cyprus and abroad for the case to be dismissed

Thursday December 12

The final judgment is delayed until December 30 – meaning she must spend Christmas on the island. Her mother says she has PTSD and is depressed 

Monday December 30

Judge Michalis Papathanasiou finds her guilty based on the police evidence and her confession. 

Tuesday January 7 2020 

The judge said he was giving her a ‘second chance’ and suspended her prison sentence. She returned to the UK and her lawyer Lewis Power QC said her legal team would be challenging her conviction and were prepared to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.  

But she alleged that Yusufov and 11 of his friends had gang-raped her in a hotel room in Ayia Napa. 

She told police he held her down while she was raped by the gang of 12 who also filmed it on their mobile phones.

Yusufov, who plays for Beit Shemesh FC near Jerusalem, denied rape along with his 11 friends but said in January he accepted she should be allowed to return to Britain after six hellish months in Cyprus.

His lawyer Nir Yaslovitzh told MailOnline: ‘He takes the opinion that justice has been done. She was found guilty by the court of lying and I hope with this sentence she has learned her lesson. We respect the decision of the court and of course she was found guilty.’

Tel Aviv based Yaslovitch said the girl would be ‘stupid’ to launch an appeal against her conviction for public mischief, adding: ‘The appeal court will hear the same evidence and come to the same conclusion. It is a crazy thing to do’. 

The teenager’s mother had described how her daughter was left suffering with PTSD, hallucinations and a disorder that sees her sleeping 20 hours a day. 

On her return to the UK, recounting her version of events, the teenager said: ‘I thought if I don’t get out of here now, I’m going to die.

‘I don’t know how many of the 12 raped me. You don’t count, you couldn’t count.

‘They were lining up, excited, talking and shouting in Hebrew. I was trying to fight them off but I just couldn’t.

‘They were like a pack of animals — a pack of wolves.’ 

She described how she was forced to sign a confession saying she made up the attack that was dictated to her by a male police officer.

After filing an appeal, she said: ‘I told the truth. The fight has just begun.’

The woman claims she was raped after striking up a ‘normal holiday romance’ with Yusufov. 

They went back to his ‘grotty’ hotel room in the early hours of the morning.

She recalled: ‘I knew he was leaving the next day so we started kissing. About five minutes later, I heard the sound of the room door opening and turned around.

‘He grabbed me and threw me on the bed.

‘He pinned my shoulders down by kneeling on them — he was well-built, strong — I couldn’t move. From under his knees, I turned and saw the light growing from the doorway.’

The other attackers entered the room, she said: ‘Some of them grabbed my ankles, some held down my knees and they ripped my bodysuit.

‘I was trying to cross my legs all the time and every time I did, Sam would get angry. He grabbed one of my knees himself at one point. Then they took it in turns.’

For 20 minutes she was assaulted by the men, she said, before she was able to escape and tell police about the rape however they accused her of lying.

She was questioned for eight hours in an empty police station, without a lawyer, before she was pressured into signing a confession.

The woman had issues with the phrasing but the police officer ‘just lost it and shouted, ‘No! You write what I tell you to write!’

She said: ‘I knew straight away I’d done something really, really wrong by signing it.

Squalid: The bedroom where the teenager endured the gang rape ordeal in Ayia Napa, Cyprus

Squalid: The bedroom where the teenager endured the gang rape ordeal in Ayia Napa, Cyprus 

‘I was panicking by now and I told a social worker in the police station what had happened. But she just said, ‘There’s nothing you can do now’.’

However, the teenager still had faith that a judge would recognise that the statement was written under extreme pressure.

Instead she was put through another six-month ordeal, first being put in prison where she lost two-and-a-half stone in weight, then being under house arrest.

Sickening: Israeli youths were greeted with hugs after being released from police custody

Sickening: Israeli youths were greeted with hugs after being released from police custody 

In her prison diary, the victim described her nightmares where she relived the attack and the numbing drugs given to her by doctors.

One passage read: ‘At night I lie awake, sleep will not take me.

‘I can see their hands grabbing me, touching me. It makes me sick.’

After five weeks behind bars she was granted bail but her family had to raise 20,000 euros to secure her release.

Her family also had to shell out thousands in living costs to support her while she was unable to leave the country, and the teen paid tribute to the many generous Brits at home to donated to her crowdfunding campaign.