A complaint filed by a 31-year-old woman, alleging that her partner beat her during sex, has landed a 59-year-old man in Thessaloniki in prison and triggered a full judicial investigation, including into serious felonies and sexual acts that may have taken place in front of his young children.

The case came before the courts after the woman fled the flat in terror last Saturday, wearing almost nothing, and went to the police to report the man she had been in a relationship with for four months. The couple had been living together in the same house as his three minor children.

Three days after reporting the domestic violence, she testified before the single-member misdemeanours court, describing the ordeal she said she had endured throughout the relationship, from the day she met the defendant to the moment she fled the house and reported him.

Beatings, degrading and sadomasochistic acts during sex, some committed in front of his children, and threats and abuse delivered in the most obscene language were among the details the victim gave in her testimony. They were recorded in the court minutes, which judges ordered forwarded to the relevant prosecutors for a criminal assessment.

As for the specific incident that led to the man’s arrest, the woman told the court he had effectively forced her into oral sex, and that when she objected, he attacked her. “I just told him that’s all he thinks about, and he reacted violently again. He grabbed me by the hair and started hitting me, slapping and punching me in the head, then threw me out of the house. A short while later he was sending me voice messages asking me to come back, but I had already decided to report him,” she said.

Continuing her testimony, the woman told the court she was determined to reveal everything she had been through recently, even though none of it was included in the case file, since she had not previously found the courage to report it to the authorities.

“I know that after what you are about to hear, I could be accused of concealment myself for not reporting it sooner, but honestly, I don’t care at all, as long as this man is punished,” she said, continuing: “From the day we met, he had me staying at home with his children. He sold drugs in front of them. I have seen him abuse the children just as he abused me. I was beaten badly from April until now. He tried to burn my eye with a cigarette, he would lock me inside… he wouldn’t let me leave, and he abused me in front of his children. Many times he forced me to have sex in front of them too. For five months I endured absolute abuse. I didn’t report him because he threatened me and I was afraid. But I feel disgusted, I can’t take any more.”

In his defence, the 59-year-old attempted to refute everything his partner had testified and claimed he was a model father who had been raising his three young children alone for the past year and a half. “I may have pulled her by the hair that night, but I didn’t beat her, we just argued. She needs a psychiatrist and everything she is saying is a lie because she has been in contact with my ex-wife, and because she’s angry, she’s saying all this. That night she left on her own, as she has done many times before, and afterwards I would bring her back,” he said.

Regarding the living conditions of his three young children, the defendant claimed: “The children live in a normal situation. They don’t see any of this. They have nothing to do with what happens.”

The conviction and the investigation

The court ultimately adopted the prosecution’s recommendation, found the defendant guilty and sentenced him to a year in prison. It ruled that he must serve two months of that sentence, since he already had a final, irrevocable conviction against him for domestic violence against his ex-wife, while the remainder of the sentence was suspended for three years.

Following the woman’s serious allegations, and what she said she and the defendant’s young children had endured, it was decided that the court minutes would be forwarded to the relevant prosecutors for a criminal assessment, so that both the incidents themselves and the children’s living conditions could be investigated.

It is worth noting that during the hearing, both the man’s ex-wife and his eldest daughter were present in the courtroom in support of the victim. The daughter is reported to have apologised to the woman for what she had suffered at her father’s hands.