False Rape Culture, Featured

That woman in Cyprus is Freya Heath

Freya Heath Arrested for Falsely Accusing 12 Israeli Teenagers of Raping Her

The English version of the Israeli Internet newspaper Ynet first reported the story of events in Cyprus when a woman, now identified as Freya Heath (despite media attempts to conceal her identity), reported to police that she had been violently raped by a gang of young Israeli men. However, Ynet now confirms that it was Heath who allegedly committed a large array of sexual offenses — including the solicitation of minors to engage in sex with her by offering alcohol. She also reportedly solicited other adults to commit acts of violence against the teens in retribution for a sexual assault that never happened.

Why? Because one of the teens rejected her sexually.

Heath confessed that she went to the teen’s room and she meant to have sex with them.[16] During the act one of the minors (who presumably rented the apartment) reportedly came into the room. According to the young men, she offered him sex with her as well. That minor claims he declined the offer and she was so offended and hurt by the rejection that she decided to file a false rape claim. Heath allegedly filed the false accusations even against young men she had never met, not just the ones who had consensual sex or declined her offer.

This was confirmed by the teen’s lawyer, who also claims that Heath’s initial testimony contradicts her other versions of events that she gave police. Regarding the accusation concerning a leaked video of the consensual encounter, the lawyer explained that the woman also never claimed during her testimony that she refused the videos to be taken. In fact, the videos appear to show a consensual sexual encounter.

Heath’s illicit conduct has been all but overlooked and ignored by the media, which continues to portray her as the victim and the boys as offenders. Offenses she has allegedly committed include:

At least 4 accounts of sex with a minor (age of consent in Cyprus is 17)
Solicitation of minors (to engage in sexual activity)
Solicitation of minors (to engage in alcohol consumption)
Solicitation of a minor (regarding violation of law)
Fraud
False complaint
Giving false testimony
Interference with public order
Causing public mischief

And now the chain of events, step by step:

18 July

Israeli media reported that twelve Israeli youths were arrested in Ayia Napa, Cyprus on suspicion of raping a British tourist. The alleged rape took place the night before and it supposedly occurred in a hotel room. According to her testimony, Heath said she had sex with one of the Israeli boys who would later turn out to be the prime suspect. She also claimed it was not the only encounter and was preceded by several others.

According to the original version, the incident on the night of 17 July was different from her earlier sexual encounters and the main suspect violently raped her. She claimed that he ignored her crying and invited 11 other friends to participate in raping her.[3,4,5] She claimed that two boys held her by force and raped her. Some wore condoms and some not, she alleged. It was then that she recognized 12 faces. That was the version she gave to Daily Mail. She said the rape was brutal; that it went on for over an hour and she claims she was released only after she collapsed[1,9]. She claimed that she escaped from the room and told two of her girlfriends that she had undergone a gang rape.[13]

Heath also spread the story that she was raped among other British tourists. This reportedly prompted a mob to form, to attack and brutalize the accused young men. Heath claimed to have stayed in the hotel medical clinic until police arrived. Police then took her to the hospital where she underwent a rape test.[3] On the same day, it was reported that nine of the boys denied any connection to her, and the remaining three claimed that they had consensual sex with her. One man claimed to have had full sex and the other two sexual acts.[6]

An attorney for the accused teens said they had been beaten by investigators that day to make them incriminate each other and that he had videos supporting the boy’s version.[7] They were detained in separate locations between Larnaca and Nicosia, and DNA samples were taken from them.[2]

20 July

It was reported that a friend of Heaths’ had told the head of the investigative team that she had “previously complained about being gang raped and received financial compensation”. She stated that Heath was working in Cyprus as a stripper. This is the first evidence that she wasn’t a “tourist”.[10]

24 July

The girlfriend of one of the accused men, Yonah Golub, said that as soon as he was arrested she provided the police with an alibi, showing a selfie they took in bed in another hotel at the time of the alleged attack. “When he was in my room, I went down to buy us a drink, something sweet. I asked him what kind of drink he wanted. I showed them that he was in the room at that moment because the key was not on me.”[11,12]

25 July

Police reported that they recovered videos from the boys’ smartphones and that three other teenagers gave a consistent statements that they were staying outside the hotel room where the alleged rape occurred and were not allowed to enter it except with Heath’s permission (after being solicited by her to engage in the orgy). Apparently one of the boys who was out, or another one wanting to return to his room, refused to have sex with her, a rejection which reportedly caused her to become very angry.

27 July

A drastically different picture began to emerge which was different from the initial one: Heath was neither a tourist nor a stripper but worked as a hotel hostess. The DNA findings showed three signatures that did not belong to any of the twelve arrested boys, indicating that she had sex with three other men just prior to the alleged gang rape. Several more of the accused men presented alibis. Of the twelve juveniles identified on 18 July as her rapists, it has become clear that some were never in room where the alleged rape occurred. Some of the boys didn’t even know each other. The accused young men came to Cyprus in three different groups.

One of the accused, Yonah Golub, was with his girlfriend in Luna Park and McDonald’s and then returned to their room where they took a selfie in bed.[5] He photographed himself with his girlfriend in their bedroom, later napping at the time of the alleged rape. He woke up when police officers broke through the door of his room. Golub insists he did not know the woman who claims he raped her.[15]

28 July

It was reported that the last of the suspects were cleared of suspicion and released, while Heath was arrested after confessing that she had invented the rape story. “There was no rape,” the Cyprus police said. According to her confession, sexual relations did not only occur with her consent, she, in fact, initiated them. Moreover, she stated that they did not stop because the sexual encounter was being filmed but because another boy entered the room. It was apparently the young man who was offered sex and refused it. When it happened, the British woman was so offended and angry that she took revenge by falsely accusing 12 men.

The media has falsely served the narrative that the boy had thrown her out of the room in a degrading manner, causing her to file the false accusation. Yet, the statements above refuted the fake news reports and revealed the true nature of the event.[1,8,16] An abundance of evidence helped police get the confession out: according to the CCTV, she left the room fully dressed, the rape test found three other men’s DNA who were not among the 12 Israelis she was accusing, and the videos recovered from the cell phones showed her having consensual sex — no signs of resistance. Fully sober.

29 July

Finally, the news came out that the real reason for the false accusation was not the one young man ejecting Heath from the room but that one of the boys refused to have sex with her. She was told no, and accused 12 men of rape.[16]

The story of the video distribution is probably more fake news, invented by the media: the videos were most probably leaked – the question is only by whom.

Let’s start with some facts and details in this regard and repeat some of them:

On July 18, 12 Israeli youths were arrested in Ayia Napa on suspicion of raping Freya Heath. Various media reports in Cyprus have claimed that before they were arrested, there was an attempt to lynch them. They were reportedly beaten by many British tourists and were hiding in their rooms after the false accusation was spread around. Some of the boys were reportedly injured and one of them said his nose was broken. This was the situation in which the police arrested them. Already on the same day, the boys’ lawyer claimed that he had videos supporting their version of events. This is a critical detail as the lawyer meets with detainees after the arrest and receives all information and materials from the police. This details inform us that a short time from filling the accusation, and the arrest itself, the videos were in the hands of the police and provided to their lawyer.

On 25 July, the Cypriot police reported recovering the videos from the boys’ smartphones. The boy’s phones had been confiscated by the Cypriot police at the time of the arrest and later handed to their lawyer. This chain of events clearly demonstrates that the arrested boys couldn’t have spread the videos. They simply did not have enough time for this. Thus, previous allegations that they were leaked by the boys are demonstrably false. As the boy’s lawyers said: “The videos were unfortunately distributed even before the boys’ were released”[17] or as a preventive measure to protect themselves from false accusation.

References:

[1] https://www.timesofisrael.com/cyprus-court-remands-uk-tourist-who-said-she-made-up-rape-claim-against-israelis/
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[2] https://www.srugim.co.il/357294-Investigation-rape-Cyprus-9-of-suspects-deniers

[3] https://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-5553673,00.html

[4] https://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-5553294,00.html

[5] https://13news.co.il/item/news/domestic/crime-law/crime/cyprus-gang-rape-investigation-312849/

[6] https://news.walla.co.il/item/3249535

[7] https://www.maariv.co.il/news/law/Article-708770

[8] https://news.walla.co.il/item/3250117

[9] https://www.israelhayom.co.il/article/675521

[10] https://www.israelhayom.co.il/article/675587

[11] https://www.maariv.co.il/news/law/Article-709584

[12] https://www.mako.co.il/news-law/crime-q3_2019/Article-66a83b8c3a52c61027.htm