British teenager convicted of making up gang rape claims in Cyprus speaks about ordeal in her first TV interview
The teenager convicted of making up gang rape claims in Cyprus will speak about the ordeal in her first television interview.
ITV's new documentary Believe Me: The Cyprus Rape Case, speaks to the 19-year-old woman, known as Emily in the programme, as well as her mother, her friends and the man who stumbled upon her shortly after the alleged rape occurred.
Emily remains adamant she told the truth, as she tells ITV news anchor Julie Etchingham that local police had forced her to retract her rape claim.
She said: "There was no other way out of that police station other than sign that retraction statement.
"I thought as soon as I am outside that volatile environment I can sort this out.
"When you're in that situation, the only sensible thing to do is to conform."
The British student was stuck on the Mediterranean island for almost five months after claiming she was raped by up to 12 Israeli tourists in a hotel room in the town of Ayia Napa on July 17.
She was charged and spent about a month in prison before being granted bail in August.
She was handed a four-month jail term, suspended for three years, on January 7 before returning to the UK that week.
She has since lodged an appeal against her public mischief conviction to Cyprus's supreme court.
The 12 men were released without charge.
The documentary will see Emily's friends who found her shortly after the alleged rape tell their stories for the first time.
One friend recalled: "She was in such a traumatic state and like crying and bruises all over her body, like it was a horrible sight."
Meanwhile, a British man who claimed to have seen Emily surrounded by the gang of men said: "One of them had his arms over her shoulders as if to pull her close and the two were almost standing either side of her so she had nowhere to move."
The programme will explore "inconsistencies in the suspects' account" of that night, with a former Home Office adviser re-examining the evidence.
Former Detective Chief Superintendent David Gee tells the programme, if it had occurred in the UK, there was enough evidence to charge at least one man with rape.
Believe Me: The Cyprus Rape Case is broadcast on Tuesday 14 April at 10.45pm on ITV.