A 49-year-old nurse has been committed for trial at Famagusta District Court beginning 10 July, charged with indecent assault on a foreign national who attended Famagusta Health Centre for examinations on 11 June.
The 49-year-old faces one charge of indecent assault against a 44-year-old man, whilst a second charge concerning abuse of power by a public official has been dropped.
The accused was released by the court after paying €800 in cash and signing a €10,000 guarantee. He also surrendered his travel documents, his name was placed on the stop list, and he must report to sign at a police station three times weekly.
Alleged incident details
The case was reported to Famagusta Police on 14 June by the 44-year-old complainant, who stated that three days earlier he had attended Famagusta Hospital Health Centre with 10 other people for examinations to secure work permits in Cyprus.
According to the foreign national’s complaint, the 49-year-old nurse who examined him said he had high blood pressure and needed an electrocardiogram.
The complainant alleged the 49-year-old indecently assaulted and sexually harassed him during the examination. The suspect allegedly stopped the indecent assault when someone knocked on the examination room door.
Two days after the incident, the suspect allegedly approached the complainant through a dating application, prompting the victim to file a complaint with Famagusta CID, whose officers arrested the nurse.
Nurse’s defence
The nurse claimed the complainant filed the complaint vindictively because he delayed his examination and he may have missed his appointment at the Immigration Department.
Previous case involvement
The 49-year-old nurse’s name was previously linked to the high-profile kidnapping case of two 11-year-old boys from a Larnaca school in September 2018.
The nurse was arrested and detained as a suspect for illegally providing sedative pills found in the kidnapper’s possession.
He was also considered suspect for interfering with judicial proceedings, allegedly attempting to influence a doctor to testify that he was medically treating the kidnapper, who was sentenced to 16 years imprisonment in March 2019.
During that period, the nurse worked at Larnaca Hospital and was placed on administrative leave. After his leave ended, he was transferred to primary care and posted to Famagusta Health Centre.
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