Young man was sentenced by the Three-member Criminal Court of Thessaloniki for urging a 17-year-old girl to cause her genital mutilation with a knife and, under the threat of publishing nude photographs he illegally possessed, forced her to self-harm with a sharp object, carving the words “Sorry” and “Truth” into her body.

The unprecedented case dealt with the Three-member Misdemeanor Court of Thessaloniki, which imposed on the 23-year-old, currently accused, a total prison sentence of 2 years. The judges ordered that part of the above sentence be served, specifically for 3 months, while the rest was suspended. The convicted person did not appear in court nor was he represented by a lawyer. The case was reported in early 2021 by the victim’s mother. She herself had previously noticed changes in the behavior of her then-17-year-old daughter, while the final straw was when the minor asked her mother for help to put an end to the nightmare she was experiencing, revealing, in fact , that she was receiving threats on her life and for this reason she tried to kill herself.

Everything seems to have started in the summer of 2017, when the minor met the perpetrator through mutual friends. A few months later, as he continued to communicate with the girl, the young man went abroad with his parents. Their communication continued by exchanging messages through an online application and it seems that it developed into a flirtation.

According to what is described in case file, but the young man demanded to have absolute control over the student’s movements, claiming exclusivity in her life. She valued knowing where and with whom she went for walks, while she also controlled her clothing choices. Practicing verbal and psychological violence against her, he made her feel not only bad but also guilty when her choices did not match his “wants”. It seems that the girl could not stand this control and oppression and turned to a psychologist. He, on the other hand, claimed that only he can help her and that he has deep feelings for her, trapping her mentally and emotionally.

There were not a few times that the girl wanted to break up with him, but then the perpetrator threatened her that he would publish the personal photos that he had recorded without her knowledge and consent, while in order to blackmail her he asked her to carve and burn parts of her body her. In February 2021, he reportedly tried to get her to insert a knife into her genital area and twist it to cause mutilation, with the minor refusing. At the same time, he forced her to injure her body with a knife by carving the words “Sorry” and “truth” on her left leg and left hand. Employing the same threats of publishing nude photos, he forced her to reveal to him the passwords to her social media profiles with which she deleted an account.

The court found him guilty of “attempted female genital mutilation”, “illegal processing of personal data” and “illegal violence” (the last two acts in sequence).