Criminal prosecution for serial rape and a number of other offenses was brought against the taekwondo coach, who is accused of repeatedly raping his underage female athletes from 2009 to 2020, in the gym and at his home in Ilioupoli.

According to ERT, the 44-year-old is the father of a six-year-old child and a martial arts coach.

The coach is accused of sexually abusing five girls, minors at the time of the acts, at the martial arts school he ran in Ilioupoli.

He was prosecuted and an arrest warrant was issued for serial rape, indecent abuse of minors, breach of personal data and drug supply and possession.

According to the file filed by the juvenile department of the security, the 44-year-old from 2009 to 2020 committed sexual acts against at least 5 minor girls aged 12-16 at the time, while his participation in other criminal acts is also being examined.

The publication of photos and identification details of the 44-year-old defendant has been requested by the Police Authorities in order to see if there are other victims and shed light in particular on the last three years 2020 – 2023 that he continued to be a coach.

How he approached girls

The defendant, taking advantage of his position, approached minors and after extolling their abilities in the sport, he persuaded them to follow the competitive section, in order to have long hours of individual training with him.

Afterwards and after convincing them, he performed sexual acts with them either at the gym or at his home in Ilioupoli.

From the investigation of the police in the school area and in an auxiliary area where it seems that he was raping the minors, 3 mobile phones, 2 tablets, 3 laptops, 1 hard disk and 1 memory card were found.

The tangle of the case began to unravel when three girls – now adults – filed a lawsuit against him for sexual abuse, with the preliminary investigation revealing that at least two more girls had fallen victim to him.

“I fell from the clouds because I didn’t understand such behavior,” said a former athlete.

The mother of a former student told ERT that “he was a coach and owner, I know that in recent years he had probably converted a room into a house, he definitely lived here sometimes”.

As the former athlete stated: “What I heard has moved me a lot, it’s something I find very difficult to believe, because he was a person very close to me, he was really like a second father, I always admired him.”

His action is said to have started in 2009.

Her dismay at the news of the coach’s arrest expressed the Greek taekwondo federation:

“We were ashamed and disgusted to hear the news that a taekwondo coach has been arrested for allegedly sexually harassing underage female athletes in his club. It is not possible for the human mind, that a man who should be a teacher to young sportsmen and women, transformed into an anthropomorphic monster, pushing some young girls into detestable, reprehensible acts that require legal intervention and of course condemnation.

Unfortunately, the Hellenic Taekwondo Federation became aware of the actions of this specific coach only a short time ago from the television channels. We have never received any complaint from the parents or the athletes themselves, because otherwise we would have already intervened to remove from our family, an offending element.

And we wouldn’t just stay there. We ourselves would have reported him to the competent bodies, because such behaviors are not tolerated not only in taekwondo and Greek sports, but also in our society.

We will be at the disposal of justice for anything needed. We promise that the management of ELOT will do everything humanly possible to create conditions so that something similar does not happen again in the future. At the same time, we will request from the Deputy Minister of Sports, Mr. Avgenakis, the removal of the professional license from the specific coach, whom ELOT will take care to delete from its ranks”.