Two police officers told a Cyprus court on Wednesday how they had handled — and ultimately closed — reports of domestic violence involving the family of Stylianos, the 15-year-old who died by suicide in Kotsiatis in 2019, as the high-profile trial of 11 people charged in connection with his death got under way.
The officers were the first witnesses called by prosecutor Elena Constantinou. Both had served at Pera Chorio Nisou police station and both had dealt with reports made by Stylianos’s mother — reports that were logged, referred to social services and then left to go no further.
“She did not want him prosecuted”
The second witness, an MMAD sergeant, set out the earliest known intervention. On 19 December 2007 — twelve years before Stylianos’s death — the boy’s mother came to the station and told him her husband was hitting her, though not in front of her son. She did not want to press charges.
The sergeant said he notified a social worker, completed a domestic violence form and opened a file. On 30 December 2007, he called Stylianos’s father to the station, gave him a stern warning, and the father promised not to repeat the behaviour. The sergeant told the court he had acted “as instructed by my superiors and police leadership.”
When pressed by defence lawyer Constantinos Kazantzis — who represents Stylianos’s father — on why no further action was taken after the mother alleged she was being beaten, the sergeant’s answer was brief: “Obviously because the mother said she did not want him prosecuted. A file was opened and forwarded to my superiors.”
The case file was destroyed five years later.
Mother sought police record “so as not to abandon the marital home”
The first witness, PC Pavlos Pavlou, described a separate visit by Stylianos’s mother to the same station in May 2010. She reported poor living conditions, said she had no social life, and told him her husband constantly took her to his livestock yard with no time to rest. She wanted to separate from him.
Pavlou said he remembered the events only vaguely and had consulted the station logbook. He told the court the mother had already been in contact with a Social Welfare Services officer and did not want to file a formal complaint — which, he said, left him little room for further action. She arrived with her young daughter; Stylianos was not present as his father had picked him up from nursery.
In Pavlou’s assessment, the mother came to the station to secure additional support from the Welfare Office. “She made a report and asked police to record it, apparently so as not to abandon the marital home,” he said, adding that she may also have wanted to prompt financial assistance from the Welfare Office.
He told the court he saw no visible signs of abuse on the woman. When questioned by the defence lawyer for the third accused — the social worker the mother had reportedly contacted — Pavlou said: “I advised her to go to a lawyer.”
Defence lawyers Kazantzis and Betito Jonathan, who represents Stylianos’s mother, objected to Pavlou’s testimony on relevance grounds. Judge Pavlos Agapitos ruled it admissible, saying its relevance would be assessed at the final stage of the trial.
Proceedings were cut short when defence lawyer Andreas Christou had to leave for a prior commitment as a member of the Cyprus Gaming and Casino Supervision Authority. The next hearings are set for 6 March, 17 March and 27 March.
Two plead guilty as third considers changing plea
Two of the 11 accused have already changed their pleas. The seventh accused, a 46-year-old former Social Welfare Services officer, switched from not guilty to guilty. The fifth accused pleaded guilty to three of the charges against her, through her lawyer Marios Spyrou.
The third accused — represented by a lawyer who has written to the Attorney General on the matter — also intends to change her plea, though this has yet to be formally confirmed.
The charges
The 218-count indictment opens with Stylianos’s parents. Testimony given during the inquest into the teenager’s death alleged his father, who ran a livestock unit in Kotsiatis, physically abused both Stylianos and his wife.
The first accused — the 55-year-old father — faces charges of physical and psychological violence, common assault and subjecting a person to cruel and inhuman treatment.
The second accused — Stylianos’s 48-year-old mother — faces a charge of failing to report violence against a minor under the 2000 Domestic Violence Law.
The law states that anyone who fails to report violence against a child or a person with serious intellectual or mental disabilities faces up to two years in prison and/or a fine of up to £1,000.
The remaining nine accused are Social Welfare Services officers — social workers and coordinators — charged with neglect of duty. At least two have since retired. The alleged offences are said to have occurred between 2008 and 2019.
A 58-year-old police sergeant faces a separate but related charge of neglect of duty.
His case was transferred to a different court in December, after his lawyer Stavros Dimitriou warned that the same individual would otherwise appear before the same judge as a prosecution witness in one case and as an accused in the other.
The sergeant, who served at Pera Chorio Nisou station, is alleged to have learned at an earlier stage that Stylianos had attempted to take his own life, yet failed to investigate and gave incorrect instructions to his subordinates.
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