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Earlier today Cyprus District Court Judge G. Philippou found property developers Christoforos and Marios Karayiannas guilty of an assault against Conor in 2006 and ordered them to pay damages plus interest and legal fees.

FATHER and son Christoforos and Marios Karayiannas were found guilty today in a civil action which was filed in the District Court of Famagusta by Conor O’Dwyer with regard to his first assault case which took place back in 2006.

The judge accepted as true all of the evidence given before the court by Mr O’Dwyer and the other witnesses.

District Court Judge, G. Philippou concluded that both of the defendants assaulted Conor and are liable for the injuries that they caused to him and the damage to his video camera.

They used violence against him without any reason. The judge did not accept that the defendants tried to use reasonable force in order to prevent the Plaintiff from entering their property. The judge stated that he accepted the evidence given by the Plaintiff that he had been in a public place, not trespassing, after having been invited there by his friends who live in that residential block of houses.

The defendant tried to prevent the Plaintiff, by using force, from leaving the place despite the fact that the Plaintiff was trying to leave peacefully.

The judge said that the defendants forcefully grabbed the Plaintiff’s mobile, preventing him from calling his lawyer and then grabbed his video camera while at the same time, they were preventing him from going away. They pushed him around while he was trying to get into his car, injuring him and they broke his camera.

Both defendants were acting together and encouraging each other to assault Conor. The judge found that the defendants were lying in court and gave conflicting evidence. In many parts of his evidence, Marios Karayiannas gave different evidence than that which he had given in a previous affidavit.

The Court ordered the Defendant to pay the Plaintiff total damages of 1,739.20 Euros plus interest and legal fees.

This is the first time that Conor was assaulted by the developers from whom he had bought his house. The injuries sustained during this assault were not very serious but Conor was assaulted again in 2008 by Karayiannas and ended up in hospital for 6 days with serious injuries. The civil case for this assault is still pending.

Both father and son were found guilty of this assault by the Criminal Court of Famagusta last year and although the judge imposed a 10-month prison sentence, the sentence was suspended.

The Attorney General is appealing against the suspension of the sentence and the decision issued by the judge, i.e. to the effect that they were found guilty of actual bodily harm, not grievous bodily harm.

The Defendants tried to claim, via their lawyer, that the incidents had been triggered by the behaviour of the accused, who was ruining their reputation through the Internet because he had a dispute with them over the selling a house to him. Conor gave them 66,000 Cyprus pounds for a house that they never gave him and they also kept his money.

The judge stated without any disrespect to the defendants’ lawyer that the peaceful protest by the Plaintiff and the publication of his story on the Internet were irrelevant to the matter of the assault – “…any disputes among people who are entering into commercial transactions are not solved by the use of force or by causing fear or through verbal abuse.”

The judge also pointed out that despite the intensive and not so nice way that he was cross-examined by the lawyer for the defence, Conor remained calm throughout the whole procedure and he was answering in a simple way.

This whole dispute arose five years ago when Conor O’Dwyer and his family decided to live the dream and move to a house that they bought in Frenaros, Cyprus. The dream turned into a complete nightmare for the couple and their family when they paid a large deposit of 66,000 Cyprus pounds to the developer, only to be told subsequently that their dream home has been resold to another couple despite the fact that they were registered as the beneficial owners of the property at the Land Registry.

(The Attorney General will appeal a court decision and the sentence handed down in the second assault case against Christoforos and Marios Karayiannas that took place in 2008.)

To see comments from British expats read this article in the Cyprus Property News
Copyright © Cyprus Property News

THE CRASH of the stock market, in which thousands lost their life savings or ended up with huge debts that they are still paying off today, ensured that very few people would ever again view the Cyprus Stock Exchange as a trustworthy institution. The CSE authorities may have introduced tighter controls and tougher regulations after the fiasco but, 10 years on, investing in the shares of companies listed on the exchange is still considered risky activity by the majority of people.

Once the damage is done, it is very difficult to change people’s perceptions, more so when the authorities fail to take punitive action against the culprits, professionals who knowingly misled investors with cooked accounts and unrealistic forecasts. The overriding impression created was that the law offered no effective protection to investors from dishonest businessmen looking to make a fast buck at the expense of gullible people.

This same mistake has now been made in the property market, which also went through a ‘bubble phase’, attracting all sorts of cowboys, posing as developers, who saw an opportunity to make a quick profit. Most of the buyers were foreigners and therefore easy prey as they were not aware of the Cyprus laws and were not guaranteed reliable legal advice.

The results are well-known and far from flattering for Cyprus. One couple recently lost their flat, some buyers were sold properties that had already been sold, others ended up in flats without electricity and there are close to 10,000 foreigner property-owners without title deeds, praying that the developer would not go bankrupt and the bank takes over their property. There has been one positive case in which owners sued a lawyer who had misled them and were paid damages in the region of €100,000.

This mess has received extensive media coverage abroad, particularly in Britain from which most buyers of holiday homes came. British MEPs have raised the issue of title deeds at the European Parliament, thus making the problem known across Europe. It was the worst possible publicity the struggling holiday home market could have received as it amplified the effects of the recession and jeopardised the future of many developers.

Given that government proposals on the title deeds issue, which also affects some 90,000 Cypriots, will solve none of the old problems, there was only one way for Cyprus to re-build its tarnished image – taking a tough line in cases of developers deceiving buyers that were brought before justice. It was critically important to show that the law offered protection to foreigners who had been deceived by locals; the case of the lawyer who had to pay damages to his clients was a step in the right direction.

But in the last week this good work has been undone by the case of Connor O’Dwyer who had been assaulted by three men (a developer he was in dispute with, the developer’s son and an associate) and was hospitalised for a week. His three attackers were found guilty of causing actual bodily harm by the court but the judge did not give a custodial sentence. Father and son were given a 10-month suspended prison sentence while the third man was fined €3,000. The developer had also crashed his car into O’Dwyer’s but for that misdemeanour the court gave him two penalty points, instead of three that would have caused him to lose his licence.

The court’s leniency towards O’Dwyer’s attackers was quite astonishing and will not boost the confidence of foreigners in our justice system. It is more likely to encourage the view, rightly or wrongly, that the courts are not very tough on crimes by Cypriots against foreigners. To add insult to injury, O’Dwyer now faces criminal charges for posting offensive and harassing messages “without reasonable cause”, for publishing personal data and for threatening violence.

The Attorney-general may have been obliged to charge O’Dwyer after the police received a complaint, but it seems bizarre that the state would prosecute for alleged offences committed six years ago. On Friday it was reported that the Attorney-general would lodge an appeal against the court’s decision and lenient sentence in the O’Dwyer case. One prosecutor told the Cyprus Mail: The Attorney-general’s position is that nothing changes because he is British or any other nationality. Justice is for all.”

The authorities may have finally realised the damage being done to Cyprus’ image by our system’s failure to protect property buyers, but unfortunately, this seems like a case of too little too late.

November 7, 2010

THE Attorney-general will appeal a court decision and the sentence handed down in the assault of a British national by a developer following a dispute over a property.

On Wednesday, a Paralimni court sentenced property developers, Christoforos Karayiannas, 55 and his son Marios, 35, to a 10-month jail term that was however suspended for two years for assaulting Conor O’Dwyer in 2008.

A third man involved in the incident, 31-year-old Charalambos Ttigis was fined €3,000.

The court found the trio guilty last month of assaulting O’Dwyer and causing actual bodily harm (ABH) – and not the more serious grievous bodily harm (GBH) count, the state had charged them with.

State prosecutor Thanasis Papanicolaou told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that the state will appeal. “I have been authorised by the Attorney-general to file an appeal for both the decision and the sentence,” Papanicolaou said. He added that this would be done in the next few days.

Papanicolaou stressed, that the fact that the plaintiff was British did not make any difference to the state.

“Every person has rights in the Republic of Cyprus, whether they are Cypriots, foreigners, EU nationals or third country nationals,” he said. “The Attorney- general’s position is that nothing changes because he is British or any other nationality. Justice is for all.”

The GBH charge carries a maximum of seven years in jail while ABH goes up to three years.

In her decision on October 27, Judge Evi Antoniou said O’Dwyer – when he testified during the trial – was “excessive in most points.”

“He was stressed, lost his temper, and through his testimony it became evident that the only thing he wanted was the punishment of the defendants,” the judge said. “This led him to numerous contradictions in his testimony.”

During sentencing, the judge said she accepted the position that Christoforos and Marios Karayiannas had been repeatedly provoked by the plaintiff. “Recording most of the conversations the plaintiff had with defendant One without him knowing … publishing the conversations on the Internet, the claims of the plaintiff that defendants One and Two are liars and they mislead people, and publishing these claims as well as harassing” the defendants’ clients “cannot be ignored,” the judge said.

“The plaintiff’s behaviour cannot be isolated from the way things went. He activated four spy cameras; one being a micro- camera hidden well in his jacket to peacefully measure, according to his claim, the pavement of the house he bought and to take pictures,” the judge said.

That provocation was taken into consideration when deciding whether to suspend the sentence, the judge said. It is believed that this particular point will be disputed by the prosecution in the appeal.

The legal precedent cited by the judge stated that provocation can be a mitigating factor in passing sentence but nowhere did it explicitly say that it can be used to suspend a sentence.

By: George Psyllides Published: Friday 5th November 2010

To see comments from British expats read this article in the Cyprus Property News

THE property developers convicted last week of assaulting a British expat escaped jail yesterday after the presiding judge handed down a 10 month suspended prison sentence for two of them and issued the third a €3,000 fine.

Christoforos Karayiannas, 55, and his son Marios Karayiannas, 35, received the jail sentences suspended for two years while their associate Charalambous Ttigis, 31, who allegedly pinned down Conor O’Dwyer during the assault in 2007, received a €3,000 fine.

They were found guilty of actual bodily harm (ABH) against O’Dwyer, who said yesterday “I am absolutely shocked and disgusted. This trial was 100 per cent worse than the assault. It seems that in two years of hearings the judge has lost sight of who the victim was.”

O’Dwyer’s lawyer in two other cases that he has against the Karayiannas’, Yiannos Georgiades, also expressed his surprise at yesterday’s decision. He told the Cyprus Mail “I’m quite shocked. In other cases… where three men have assaulted one vulnerable man… the assaulter has ended up in prison.”

He also questioned the judge’s decision to reduce the conviction from grievous bodily harm (GBH) to ABH, and from a custodial to a suspended sentence.

The sentences follow an equally lenient sentence handed down to Christoforos Karayiannas for crashing into O’Dwyer’s car during the incident in 2007. He received a mere two penalty points on his driving licence. Had he been given three he would have lost his licence.

During the trial, the court heard how the men rammed O’Dwyer’s rental car at a busy junction in the eastern village of Frenaros, he was then subjected to a savage beating, including having his head stamped on – the attack left him in hospital for a week.

The controversy between the two parties began five years ago when O’Dwyer claimed he purchased a house in Frenaros that was then resold without his knowledge by the developers.

An emotional O’Dwyer said he was in a state of shock at hearing the result, having spent years protesting and campaigning to have his case heard. “So far all I have gained is two points on (Karayiannas’) licence and a suspended sentence”.

The civil case against the Karayiannas’, which will examine a dispute over the termination of the contract between the O’Dwyer and the developers, is due to begin on Friday.

A second private criminal prosecution case is already underway, for the alleged double sale of O’Dwyer’s house. At the same time, Georgiades said, the Attorney General is also bringing a case against O’Dwyer for the content of his website.

By: Patrick Dewhurst
Published: November 4th, 2010
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008

THERE was jubilation last night amongst supporters of British property buyer Conor O’Dwyer as a developer from Paralimni, his son and an associate were convicted of assault and actual body harm.

In a surprise outcome after hours of summation, Judge Evi Antoniou at Famagusta District Court ordered the three men into police custody pending mitigation and sentencing next Monday.

The case, which has been in court for several years, came after O’Dwyer reported being beaten up following an incident outside a disputed house in early 2007.

The father-of-two was forced to travel to Cyprus on more than seven occasions to be present at court hearings, only to be faced with a series of obstacles and adjournments.

O’Dwyer’s lawyer, Yiannos Georgiaides, said he was pleased with the outcome, but also noted that there was a feeling of disappointment that the charges had been downgraded from grievous bodily harm to actual bodily harm – which carry more lenient custodial sentences of up to five years.

“At least these people have been found guilty of his assault. I think justice has been done and we now have to wait for the sentencing,” he said.

Those convicted of actual bodily harm are also subject to a custodial sentence, but the Cyprus Mail understands that the prosecution legal team is now considering an appeal to have the charges upgraded to GBH.

“It’s a good result, now we wait,” Georgiaides added.

British national television network ITV has also been following the story and were on hand to film yesterday’s events – for a programme which will be broadcast to millions of viewers next year.

The case has been a hot topic of conversation for the past two years, with some legal commentators expressing bewilderment that an assault case should have dragged on for so long.

O’Dwyer spent a week in Larnaca General Hospital after the attack and said the incident blighted his family life.

The controversy between the two parties began five years ago when O’Dwyer claimed he purchased a house in Frenaros that was then resold without his knowledge by the developers.

The developers dismissed the accusations and accused O’Dwyer of attempting to extort a more expensive house from them – a charge that O’Dwyer flatly denies.

He claims the spat resulted in him losing the house and £100,000 he had paid for the property.

Last month O’Dwyer gained international attention when he held a four-day peaceful protest outside the Presidential Palace in Nicosia, spending two nights sleeping just yards from the main entrance to publicise his lengthy legal battle.

Video clips of O’Dwyer’s plight, posted online, have caused outrage amongst many home-owners, who demanded to know why the dispute was not quickly settled in court.

He widely publicised the details of his property dispute with the developers on YouTube and on the website lyingbuilder.com. However, since the beginning of the court case he ceased posting updates.

Developers have been twitchy about the long-running saga, which has been reported worldwide and is said to have caused “untold damage” to the local real estate industry according to commentators.

By Nathan Morley Published on October 28, 2010
Copyright © Cyprus Mail

Cyprus property developers Christoforos Karayiannas, Marios Karayiannas and an employee of their company have been found guilty of causing British home buyer Conor O’Dwyer actual bodily harm as a result of their assault on him in January 2008.

CONOR O’Dwyer was assaulted in 2008 while gathering evidence for what is now a five-year legal battle with property developers Christoforos Karayiannas & Son Ltd of Paralimni.

The brutal attack left him hospitalised for six days while his attackers Christoforos Karayiannas, Marios Karayiannas and an employee of their company were released shortly after from jail.

Earlier today the presiding judge in the Famagusta Court, Evi Antoniou, found all three of the accused guilty of causing Mr O’Dwyer Actual Bodily Harm; they have been remanded in custody pending mitigation and sentencing on Monday. (In the UK, the maximum penalty for Actual Bodily Harm is five years imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine).

The prosecution team is considering an appeal to have the charges upgraded to Grievous Bodily Harm.

This assault case has been dragging on since January 2009 and has suffered numerous adjournments and delays. O’Dwyer camped outside the Cyprus High Commission in London for 74 days and nights in his quest for justice and has been forced to fly between his home in the UK and Cyprus on more than twenty occasions for this and other court cases. He recently protested outside the Presidential Palace in Nicosia for four days. The costs involved and the strain on his family have been tremendous.

His last trip was on the 29th September but once again the case was adjourned as the judge was not ready to deliver a verdict and one of the accused failed to turn up in Court.

O’Dwyer has two further Court cases that he is pursuing in Cyprus:

1. Civil case for breach of contract.
2. Private criminal case of fraud in the unlawful selling of his house.

In addition, the authorities in Cyprus are proceeding with a criminal case against Mr O’Dwyer concerning information on his website www.lyingbuilder.com; the next court date is scheduled for late November.

ITV Homes from Hell

The O’Dwyer case will be one of those featured in a new series of the ITV program ‘Homes from Hell’ which is scheduled for transmission in the UK during the summer of 2011.

As a well-known columnist from the Financial Mirror wrote on the 16th June 2010:

“The Conor O’Dwyer case has reached such a level of international notoriety it is difficult to see Cyprus ever living it down.”

By: Nigel Howarth Published: Wednesday 27th October 2010
To see comments from British expats read this article in the Cyprus Property News
Copyright © Cyprus Property News