The scene of his sexual abuse by Dimitris Lignadis in Epidaurus in the summer of 2015 and the sexual relationship he said he had with the accused, described today in the courtroom of the Mixed Jury Court of Athens, the second man who took legal action against the former artistic director of the National Theatre.
He is a 25-year-old man, now 25, originally from Egypt, who at one point during his testimony turned to Dimitris Lignadi and addressed him with a "why". A "why", which concerned the way he abused him - as he said - in his hotel room in Epidaurus. For his part, the accused, who watched the young man's testimony with great attention, did not answer him.
During his testimony, he referred in detail to what happened in Epidaurus and was asked a series of questions by the bench. In fact, he testified that what he experienced that night at the hands of the accused was "exactly the same" as what he had experienced when he was five years old at the hands of his uncle. He stressed that he decided to denounce Dimitris Lignadis "so that there would be justice". As he said: "I cannot be exploited by one more person and there can be no justice. It is not a matter of revenge, it is a matter of Justice."
Epidaurus
Referring to the disputed incident of his sexual abuse by D. Lignadis on 24 July in Epidaurus, the witness described in his testimony everything that happened on the first day of the trip when he, Dimitris Lignadis and a friend of his, Theo, had arrived at the hotel. "We went out on the terrace and saw all of Epidaurus. We put on music, talked and went to the little village to have a coffee. A colleague of his came and sat with us.
President: Who was she?
Witness: I don't know her.
Continuing, the witness said: "Then we left and went to a club, we sat for a while I didn't like it. Theo was with him. We went to the hotel and Theo and I went to the pool that had a swimming pool. The defendant was on the terrace. We went upstairs we were tired and went to bed. The next morning we all went to the beach together we sunbathed, we went back to the room we took a bath and then we sat on the veranda and were to go to the theatre.
Chairman: Did you go there for a three-day holiday or for some business reasons of the accused?
Witness: It was a three-day holiday he had told us that we were going to a show.
Continuing, the witness said that on the evening of the same day they went to the theatrical performance in Epidaurus but they sat for about half an hour in the ancient theatre because they were bored. So all of them and the accused left and went to Nafplio. "We ate pizzas in Nafplio in a restaurant, we went for a walk and ate ice cream. The defendant showed us the church where Kapodistrias was murdered, the castle. It was very nice. I had a very good time. I was with the accused with a man I was very much in love with," the witness said and continued: "It was now after 12 midnight and we went back to the hotel. All three of us sat on the veranda. The defendant put on jeans. I was tired and I told them, 'you guys are closing my eyes, I'm going to bed'. I went to the room, lay down and I was in shorts and a T-shirt. He was asleep within minutes. At some point I started to feel pain in my back, being pulled upwards by the defendant."
Chairman: Were you on your stomach in bed?
Witness: Yes, and I noticed in my back pain and pulling upwards with force. He took my shorts off, I was 50 pounds at the time and the defendant was 30 pounds more than me. He took off my shorts and started licking me. I was so scared. He continued to lick me he put me down he lifted me he licked me and then when he didn't want any more he put me down...
Chairman. Did he perform any other acts on your body?
Witness: They were having intercourse, he came on me. I felt pain in my back from the way he was lifting and pulling me. Pain and back pain
Chairman: Why do you think he had you caught like that?
At this point the witness turned to Dimitri Lignadis and said: "Why don't you tell me why...". The defendant, however, could not be heard to reply. Continuing and responding to the court the young man said: "So I couldn't move, so it would hurt me."
Chairman: Did you say anything to him?
Witness: I couldn't speak, there was no way he was going to stop, he was like an animal on me.
Chairman: When we feel threatened we call for help. There was your friend there and other apartments were night they could probably hear your protests ...
Witness: All I could think about at that moment was what had happened to me when I was five by my uncle. Exactly the same things, I was five years old.
Chairman: Is this the first time you are saying this here today?
Witness: No, I have said it before. I was frozen, I was scared, I felt like it wouldn't stop. It was the first time he was so violent. After that he got up, I don't know where he went. This lasted six to seven minutes. I was frozen and crying and remembering the old days.
Chairman: Did you say anything to Theo that night?
Witness: I couldn't tell him.
President: You were 17 years old, he was your friend, you had some support...
Witness: I was ashamed.
President: What were you thinking the next day?
Witness: That I wanted to leave and go home. I returned with the defendant and Theo there was no other way to return. The defendant and I were not talking there was a heavy atmosphere. My feelings for him at that time were mixed. I thought I didn't deserve anything, but I thought he was telling me he loved me. I felt anger and sadness. I knew that what had happened shouldn't have happened. I felt sad because a person who told me he loved me. Then I took all those feelings and put them in the back of my mind. At some point I will get over it."
Chairman: After you returned to Athens did you talk to the defendant? What did he say to you?
Witness: We talked through messages more. I was trying to understand what had happened, I had thrown a joke at him, it was heavy.
"Why did I go to Lignadi's house"
Next, the young man referred to the family problems he and his family faced when his parents and brother found out that he was homosexual. He said he went through a "depressive phase of fighting" and felt he could not stay at home. Then, as he said, he took the initiative to go and stay at D. Lignadi's house.
President? Why didn't you go to your friend Theo?
Witness: I didn't know I had to go to Theo, everyone has their own problems.
Chairman: Why did you go to the defendant
Witness: I just wanted to go to a place where we could experience what we used to have.
Chairman: Didn't memories of the incident in Epidaurus come back to you? You were not afraid that something worse might happen.
Witness: Is it strange what I'm telling you I know, but I couldn't go anywhere else?
How they met the accused
Earlier, the young man had referred to his acquaintance with Dimitris Lignadis and the beginning of his relationship with the director, describing how he had fallen in love with him, but also how the accused brought home other boys with whom he had sexual relations.
As the witness said, he met D. Lignadis in 2015 in a gay friendly bar in Monastiraki. "I was not yet 17. I met him through my friend Theo and we were there with my friend Anastasia. Theo told us that he was going to invite a friend of his, older but very cool, and that he was a director. I was excited. I didn't know the defendant, I wasn't involved in theatre. He came in smiling, he didn't seem strange or weird to me. It didn't seem to me that he came as a stern old man, he was smiling and fine," the witness said.
Further, he said that the director told him that he was very handsome and could help him make a career in modelling as he wished. "I was excited myself. He said 'I could help you a lot, you've got a lot to spare'. I say in my heart I finally found a person to help me. He confirmed what I believed about myself and what I could do. ....I was seeing an open minded person, so forward! I was hiding from my parents to paint my eyebrow a little, so to speak. We had conversations that I deserved so much better, conversations about sex and what he had done. He would tell me what he had done in sex and what sex should be like. I had by then had two experiences. One with a girl and then with a boy."
Chairman: Were you sharing your experiences?
Witness: Yes, I was answering, I was also discussing.
Chairman: Your family?
Witness: My family had a small understanding that I was gay. My mother made fun of people like me. But they love me. But we had distance. There was no one to tell me that this was homosexuality. No one told me "you love a boy and that's right."
President: Did your friends know? Why are you looking for someone else's support?
Witness: My friends supported me, but I wanted an older person to tell me that what I was doing was right.
As the witness explained, he thought it was karmic that he had met the director on Valentine's Day. "I had met him on February 14 and I remember it because I was saying afterwards that I was meant to meet him on Valentine's Day," he said, referring to the first time he felt uncomfortable with the director and a friend from school.
President:Up to Epidaurus had you met many times?
Witness: I had been there several times on my own, but I had school and we didn't meet often. I didn't sleep at his house. Gradually our relationship started to pick up. He started kissing me, putting me on top of him, it was very romantic. About 1-2 months after we met.
President: Were you limited to fondling?
Witness: We had done sexual and oral. I did to him. I had asked him one day why we did not consummate our relationship and he had told me that "what you love, you don't c@@@@@."
The witness described that he was jealous of D. Lignadis because he had relations with other people, and had complained to him about it. In fact, he explained that other minors came to the house, had sex and drank cigarettes. He claimed that together with some but children, they were 'Lignadi's children'. "He kept calling us my children, my children. And we were also saying among ourselves that we were "Lignadi's children," the witness said."
Source: Proto Thema
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