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Man seized in Corfu hideout over rapes of four British women
Paul Anast26 Aug 2010
A man accused of being a serial rapist who attacked four British women has been seized on the island of Corfu.
British and Greek police made the arrest after a raid on the man's mountain hideout. Police today said the suspect was a 38-year-old Greek resident of Lefkimi who preyed on British women in the resort of Kavos.
Officials allege that the man has confessed to the rape of four British women over the past six weeks, but that the number of victims is believed to be higher.
Police sources said the British victims were aged between 18 and 47.
The suspect was jailed overnight in holding cells and was scheduled to appear before a magistrate today.
The rapes spread terror among holidaymakers on the island and British Consul Alison Becket flew in from Athens with UK experts to help Greek police. A British embassy spokesman in Athens confirmed that Mrs Becket was still in Corfu to follow the preliminary court proceedings. The chief of Lefkimi and Kavos police, Captain Panayotis Kyritsis, who along with deputy chief George Koulouris led the investigation, said: “We consider this to be the success of the decade in terms of bringing a sense of security to British and other holidaymakers.”
A security police officer said the Greek man was a “long-time suspect”.: “We are now investigating whether he was responsible for other incidents as well.”
The officer said the suspected rapist had left his home in Lefkimi in July and had built himself a stone and wood shack in the forest of Arkoudila, next to Kavos.
“This is a very densely forested and semi-mountainous part of Corfu, so it was difficult to find him as he behaved like a wild animal on the run. But we eventually ambushed him when we discovered his hideout.
“The British Consul actually visited the forest and the adjacent isolated beaches to see where the rape incidents occurred.”
