(ANSA) - ROME, 12 JAN - The trial of a sailing coach accused of raping an 11-year-old girl in 2010. This is an important moment for the MeToo movement in Greece triggered a year ago by the sexual abuse report by the Olympic sailing champion Sofia Bekatorou.
The Guardian reports it.
In December 2020, the athlete said he suffered harassment from a Federation executive during preparation for the Sydney Olympics in 2000, when he was 21 years old. Her revelations prompted other women - sportswomen but also students, journalists and actresses - to report the violence they suffered. And it was Bekatorou who convinced the girl raped by his coach to report him and go to trial. The accused, 38-year-old Triantafyllos Apostolou, is accused of "sexual and psychological violence against laminorenne".
In an interview last year, the man argued that the relationships were consensual and that he intended to marry the girl with parental blessing. "We were supposed to get married and her mother agreed," said thecoach at Proto Thema newspaper.
The conservative government led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis recently introduced tougher penalties for perpetrators and extended statute of limitations for child abuse.
The Greek authorities have also created an online platform for reporting harassment in real time and have opened help lines for victims.
(HANDLE).