Story By: Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Newsflash

A 32-year-old man has been found guilty of raping a frightened and crying 20-year-old British woman after giving her cannabis.

The man, who has not been named in reports, was found guilty of raping the British woman in the Cypriot resort of Ayia Napa on 26th June 2019 by the Larnaca-Famagusta Criminal Court.

The victim told the court that after finishing her shift in a bar in the resort at around 3am she was walking home when the defendant suddenly appeared.

She said she spoke to him as she recognised him from the area, and he had offered to find laughing gas for them.

The British woman, who was working in the resort for the summer season, said she then got into his car as she felt safe, but she “never intended, sought to or expected to have sex with the defendant.”

The court heard the man pulled out a bag of cannabis as they were driving and stopped twice to buy balloons to fill with laughing gas.

However, the victim then realised she was being driven far from her home and sent her location in a message to her friend as she began to worry.

The man stopped the car near the town of Sotira, with the victim saying she was frightened as they were in a dark and remote location.

She had reluctantly agreed to smoke the cannabis, saying as she did not want to annoy him, and had told him repeatedly that she wanted to go home, but the court heard that the man then grabbed her and threw her against a railing.

He ignored the fact that she had then started to cry, the court heard. She said she did not how to act if the defendant had decided to harm her, and he had then raped her despite her repeatedly shouting that she just wanted to go home.

The defendant then dropped the woman off near her flat, and in a state of shock she rang the bell, with one of her flatmates saying she was “very upset, she was crying and her hair was messy, and she didn’t speak for a long time”.

After she reported the case the defendant was arrested but claimed the woman had engaged in consensual sex with him.

The court found his testimony was unreliable and he will be sentenced on 25th May.

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