The 40-year-old sailing coach was sentenced to 13 years in prison, the same as the trial court, for sexually abusing an underage athlete between 2010 and 2013.

With the now adult athlete absent from the courtroom today, the court unanimously declared the 40-year-old accused guilty without mitigating circumstances, as in the first instance, for abuse of a minor and not guilty by a majority for rape (6 to 1) with a minority of the president who ruled that there was an act of rape.

The court ruled that the special characteristics of the act, the fact that the 40-year-old had been performing sexual acts with a minor for a long time and also his attitude after the act, and unanimously decided not to reduce the initial sentence. As the president Sofia Lignou characteristically stated, “the accused declared remorse, he told us that “I did it but”.. “but” cancels remorse. “But” means “excuse me”.

According to the president’s announcement on the ICJ’s decision on guilt, the court was heavily concerned with the charge of rape: “Rape was of particular concern to us. These acts are never done when others are in front, they are acts done in secret. The perpetrator is alone with the victim. How then shall we infer that a deed was done without another witness? We have one word against the other. We do not have forensic reports or assessments, but only what one and the other say. We have an accused who, almost from the first moment, says the same things as the patient who, during her statements, gets confused as to time or place. We believe that no one tells the whole truth… But every doubt is in favor of the accused in our law. When a trial takes place the accused is the one in the “corner”. We have to do this in every trial because we never know when we will find ourselves in the same position. We must preserve this! We need to be absolutely certain to convict a man.”

It is noted that the case had reached the courts in 2020 in the context of the Greek #metoo when the athlete, now an adult, reported what she claims she suffered from her coach at the time, when she was less than 14 years old. The accused in the first degree has been sentenced to the same prison sentence, without suspension effect, for abuse of a minor, while he has been acquitted of rape. This act, however, was decided again in the Court of Appeal, after a prosecutor’s appeal to the acquittal part of the first instance decision.

After the completion of the procedure the accused returned to the prison.