A British teenager's statement retracting claims she was gang raped in Cyprus is "highly unlikely" to have been written by a native English speaker, according to a language expert

The 19-year-old woman is on trial charged with public mischief for allegedly inventing the attack at an Ayia Napa hotel on 17 July.

Police arrested a dozen Israeli tourists but they were later released and returned home after she apparently retracted her statement 10 days later.

It is claimed the teenager willingly wrote and signed the document, but she says she was forced to change her story with the words dictated in "Greek English" by Detective Sergeant Marios Christou.

The teenager is being helped by lawyer Michael Polak, director of the group Justice Abroad, who said an 18-page report by forensic linguist Dr Andrea Nini will back her case.


Mr Polak said: "He's done a mathematical analysis of the words in her statement and concluded it's highly unlikely they would be the words of a native English speaker rather than someone who speaks English as a second language."

The statement says it was written "on [the teenager's] own free will" and that she "discovered them recording [her] doing sexual intercourse".

Image: The suspects were arrested but later released and returned to Israel

The woman said in evidence in mid-October: "I'm very well educated. I'm going to university, I got an unconditional offer so there is no way I would write a paragraph like this."

Her lawyers will ask the judge to hear University of Manchester lecturer Dr Nini's evidence by video-link in Larnaca on Friday, in what they hope will persuade him to rule the retraction statement as inadmissible.

It is also expected that the court will hear from a forensic psychologist.

The woman was a week into a working holiday when she made the allegation that she was raped by the group of young Israeli men.

She spent more than a month in prison until she was granted bail at the end of August.

However, she cannot leave the island because she has surrendered her passport.

If found guilty she could face up to a year in jail and a 1,700 euro (£1,500) fine.

A crowdfunding page has been set up by her family asking for money for legal costs - more than £40,000 has been raised so far.

The trial, which was twice adjourned in October, is expected to continue on Friday.

Lawyers believe it is likely to be adjourned again before a decision is made on the admissibility of the teenager's retraction statement.