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- Ελληνικά
Shocking,unknown evidence about the grim case of indecent assault against a 6-year-old girl by musician Giorgos Giannopoulos, a longtime collaborator of the band Pyx Lax, was presented to the audience of the Mixed Jury Court of Athens in April 2019. These facts, which led to the initial, heavy, conviction of the now 69-year-old musician are reflected in the multi-page decision issued by the court and which is brought to light by Greece's Proto Thema and journalist Vasiliki Kokkali.
According to the decision presented by the Greek medium, the child from September 2011 to May 2013, had repeatedly become a prey to the drummer's sick sexual appetites. Everything happened in the courtyard of the musician's house in Oropos, which was located a few meters away from the house where the girl's family lived. There, according to the testimonies, the now 69-year-old musician was committing lewd acts, making the minor sit on his knees to allegedly show her films. In front of him was a table with a long tablecloth and behind it the child began to experience the horrors of sexual abuse at the age of just six. At the same time, the judicial noose around George Giannopoulos seems to be tightening more and more.
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In addition to his conviction in the above case, five other women filed a lawsuit against him at the Athens Prosecutor's Office. They accuse him of sexually abusing them while they were minors, specifically between the ages of 8 and 13! The complainants are not related to each other and refer to different facts, different dates and different places. However, they allegedly describe a similar course of action by the musician in his attempts to approach them!
They also reportedly list the names of other women who experienced abusive behaviour by the 69-year-old. All that is certain is that a new investigation will now be launched and these women will be called to testify by the prosecutor. The filing of the report on behalf of the five women to the prosecutor's office was preceded by a post on social media by journalist Fotini Psychidou, the former wife of Bambi Stokas, a founding member of the Pyx Lax. F. Psychidou, as soon as the drummer's conviction for lewdness against the minor became known, claimed that the members of the band did not know "about pedophilia".
As she said, however, they knew - as did she - that Giorgos Giannopoulos "was a b@@doulos!", that "he had no judgment or criteria for chicks" and that "behind the brand name drummer of Pyx he wanted to get laid". For its part, the popular band has denied that it was aware of the drummer's activities, stating that it has stopped working with him "years ago for completely different reasons than those accused and in that time there hasn't been any contact with him".
Now, through the court's "gag ruling," issued by the Athens Mixed Jury Court, incredible evidence of the accused drummer's abuse of the underage girl in 2011 is coming to light. It also reveals the golgotha of the parents of the minor girl to prove the validity of what their child described in order to follow the conviction of the court of first instance for George Giannopoulos. That decision imposed a 12-year sentence on the defendant "for the act of seducing a child under the age of 12."
HTTPS:/CYPRUSTIMES.COM/WP-CONTENT/UPLOADS/2022/02/SCREENHUNTER_3669-FEB.-22-11.03.JPGJudges and jurors did not recognize any mitigating circumstances, but granted him a stay of execution of his sentence pending appeal and, in order to ensure his attendance at the appellate trial, required him to report twice a month to his local police station and barred him from leaving the country. In fact, the decision on the defendant's guilt was taken by a strong majority (5 -2), with two of the jurors in favour of his acquittal due to doubts. The members of the Mixed Jury (four ordinary judges and three jurors) reached their verdict of guilty after two public sittings, during which the defendant's defence and the defendant himself fought, unsuccessfully as it turned out, to overturn the heavy indictment.
Initially, they challenged the child's mother's pre-trial testimony, saying she had fallen into contradictions as to how she began searching and asking her child whether anything had happened to him at the musician's house. They charged her with "an ill-conceived scenario" that she and her second husband concocted to make the drummer a defendant. It was all done, they said, to get back at the well-known musician for refusing to testify as a false witness in a dispute between the girl's stepfather and his former father-in-law. However, such a dispute, as the court accepted, did not arise between the two persons mentioned above, either at the criminal or at the civil level. Subsequently, both George Giannopoulos and his wife turned their arrows even on the minor herself. After claiming that the child had never entered his house, he said that the girl "seemed to have an issue" and that her tone was "grim" and her face reminded him of "the face of the villain in the film".
The accused, during his apology at the trial, denied everything.
After claiming that the child had never entered his house, he said that the girl "seemed to have an issue" and that her tone was "grim" and her face reminded him of "the face of the villain in the film". For her part, the musician's wife, a teacher by profession, in her own testimony to the court, said, among other things, that "the little girl had a particular attitude" and that she had "a gloomy, melancholy look, not the carefree attitude of children of her age". Apparently - the witness added - "the child was experiencing certain situations at home". Besides, as she added, "the fact that the child was attended by a psychologist is not the first paradox in our time"! Furthermore, according to her allegations, the child's mother is a "dicaholic and vindictive character" and if something happened with her husband, she herself would understand it "and even with so much experience" which, as she said, she has with children.
The psychologist
The above allegations, of course, made by the musician's side, were not accepted by the court. This is because the testimony given in the audience by the clinical psychologist, an officer of the National Police on the validity of what the child described did not leave much room for the accused to be let off the hook. The expert, who began seeing the minor from 2013, when she was 8 years old, until the day the case was heard in the first instance, ruled out any possibility that the girl's complaint was a product of her imagination.
She testified that the minor had told her that the musician had molested her "more than three or four times." As the police psychologist told the audience, when she began seeing the child, she "was feeling overwhelmed, had difficulty sleeping and had nocturnal enuresis." She said that some of these symptoms could be due to other circumstances, such as the divorce of her parents, but as she explained, "the symptoms in touching, in relating, the nocturnal enuresis" as well as the irritability and reactivity that the child exhibited, "were not due to this". Subsequently, the witness testified: "Using the MDR technique, I asked her to think of the most aversive image, feel the emotion and then calm it down."
When a child fabricates something or lies, she is detached from it. The (...) revived the trauma. What is difficult for her to understand is why a person who was having a good time took these actions and the feeling of guilt because I didn't do something. What he initially said was that he was putting his hand on her body and in the process he said the rest. Almost every time I went he told me this was happening and one time he took my hand and put it on his genitals. It was more than three or four times..."
The clinical psychologist ruled out the possibility that the child's testimony was the product of suggestion since, she said, the girl's descriptions are extremely accurate and truthful. "She told me that he sat her on his lap, they were watching something on the computer about Madagascar and he put his hands on her body and once he took her hand and put it on his genitals. He still has no deviation in what he said today. He didn't stop going then...
HTTPS:/CYPRUSTIMES.COM/WP-CONTENT/UPLOADS/2022/02/SCREENHUNTER_3670-FEB.-22-11.05.JPGHe also felt the discomfort but didn't react. This is a way of children receiving such actions. The fight, the flight, the freeze...," she told the court. According to her further testimony, the child is highly intelligent, had excellent relations with his parents but had a feeling of aversion. "The paedophile definitely does not have a profile. They are also people above suspicion," the expert said and at another point in her testimony she added: "The only addictive thing we could attribute to the defendant is this relationship developed through the films. He had not given her a gift, he had not threatened her. That's why the child didn't react." She added that now the girl, now 17, does not want to see the defendant again and has not understood why he "did this to her and why or why not..."
"Our child is telling the truth"
The child's parents also testified at the trial, describing what they went through when they realized their daughter may have been sexually abused. "When I met the defendant I realized that as a musician he was a freer spirit. I had no objection to the children playing with him. He was very much involved with the children. He played archery with the boys," the mother initially said in her statement, noting that her daughter had told her that the accused "had put his hand on her genitals and on her breasts and had put her hand on his own genitals."
The reason, the mother testified, for her to start asking her daughter whether anything had happened was what she was told by members of another family, who at Easter 2013 had forbidden their own daughter from going to the musician's house. However, as the court order shows, those individuals subsequently changed that stance and claimed that they never mentioned to the girl's mother that their own daughter had told them anything about the musician. "I think the fact is fabricated."
"What my daughter had told me was that he had told her to tickle his tummy I don't know how many times it happened. When given the opportunity he did it. The child didn't tell me because he had created feelings of love in her face, but she also felt guilty."
There had been an incident when Mr. Yiannopoulos and he was asked to go as a false witness..." said the mother of the other girl, in order to argue in court that her daughter had told her that the 6-year-old had asked her to say "that Mr. Yiannopoulos had told her to tickle her belly." Of course, the court in its judgment did not admit these allegations. "We are not litigators. I would not subject the little girl to sessions for a trivial reason," countered the mother of the girl who accused G. Yiannopoulos, to add: "The tablecloth on Mr Yiannopoulos' table was down to the bottom."
Behind it was what my daughter said.... And to me the defendant was a very pleasant person and we hung out until I found out about my child." Further, the mother said in her trial testimony, "What my daughter had told me was that he had told her to tickle his tummy.... I don't know how many times it happened."
When given the opportunity he did it. The child didn't tell me because it had created feelings of love in her for him, but she also felt guilty. Between 2011 and 2013 she was a bit melancholy and also exhibited nocturnal enuresis for which we could not understand the reason at the time. Her father and I assumed that children go through their stages. I am convinced that everything the child says happened. There was no evidence of fiction in our daughter."
For his part, the girl's father testified in court: "I am sure that what my daughter said is true. I have very good contact with my children and I know them. Today I don't talk (with his daughter) about this matter. I had put some Pyx Lax song in the car and she asked me if I liked it and then she asked me if it was okay that Mr. Giannopoulos was a drummer in that band. I said: what does it matter? We listen to the song.
In 2007 my ex-wife and I divorced in 2007. She is very good with the kids, she takes care of them. I support her in what she does today... I am 100%, 1000% sure that what my daughter says has happened. My ex-wife would not put her in such a procedure with statements to the GADA, with monitoring by a psychologist for an argument."
"She is scheming!"
In his apology, the 69-year-old drummer, father of two adult girls, denied everything. He blamed the charges against him on the fact that he refused to testify for the child's mother's husband in his dispute with his former father-in-law. He claimed that the girl's mother even called him and told him: "What kind of friend are you? Aren't you going to testify? If she loses the house (ed: this was, according to him, the subject of the dispute) the cause will be you and you will pay for it."
Then, he said, when he was informed that the child's parents filed a lawsuit against him he called the mother and told her: "What are you doing?" Then, according to him, she replied, "I'll take the child to a psychologist and if it turns out, you'll see. I said, "Are you serious?" She says "don't be sarcastic, I'll put bracelets on you". She said "I'm going to talk to your wife to help her understand. I feel sorry for you and your nephews. I said the phrase 'will close' houses and I meant my own house, friends' houses."
He claimed in court that "for 25 years he has been in the Pyx Lax band" and that when the children came to his house, they all sat outside together because his wife wanted privacy. "They played more with archery, with a little dog, in fact when there were many children we sat in the yard," he said, claiming that he met the family of the girl who denounced him at Easter 2011 and their relationship ended in the summer of that year. "I love children, I will teach free music to a child who has no money," he continued, attributing fights to the child's family and making nasty comments about the mother's second husband! "Sometimes I had put a tape on the children or on the balcony or on the downstairs table."
Like all the children, (...) would come. If they say my wife was away why shouldn't I come into the house to do what they say to (...) and sit on the porch? (...) had not entered the house. Once or twice we had seen movies. Her expression was grim, her face sometimes reminded me of the face of the villain in the film. She seemed to have a problem with the child. I can't know why she testified to these things against me. I have not quarreled with a person, I have not bothered the authorities," the accused said during his plea and in another part of it he launched an unprecedented attack on the child's mother, claiming the following: "I have formed the impression about Mrs ... (ed: this is the mother of the child) that as a person she would not hesitate to use her daughter as well."
Source: Proto Thema
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