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> Greece

Missing Vangelis Giakoumakis: A victim of bullying

A group of Cretan students state that the rough behavior was just part of the fun and that they were friends not foes

Newsroom March 7 12:33

The search is on to find 20-year-old student, Vangelis Giakoumakis, from Crete who was a student at the Dairy School of Ioannina, capital of Epirus in north-western Greece. There are many versions as to what may have happened to the young men but all search efforts have proved fruitless.

The findings released a month after he went missing found that the student had been continuously bullied by other students with several cruel and shocking incidents coming to light. A group of students from Crete had been harassing the young man since he first arrived at the Dairy School. The young man had been tied to a chair, locked in closets and constantly hounded. More recently he had been tied with a makeshift dog collar and pulled around the school.

These findings will now be handed to a prosecutor so that penal responsibility can be attributed, whereas Deputy Agricultural Minister Vangelis Apostolou called for the resignation of the school’s dean.

A heavy climate looms at the school, particularly amongst the group of students from the isle of Crete. Students from the school told Athens Newsagency that a number of false accounts have made their way to the press. His fellow students say that they saw Vangelis every day and sometimes went for coffee with them. On the day he went missing he had lunch with the students and appeared upset concerning his grades.

Questioned about the reasons as to why Vangelis asked to change dormitory rooms in the previous year, the students say that it was due to the fact that his roommate played the mandolin for many hours, smoked heavily and had friends that played playstation until late at night. Vangelis, on his part, wanted to study, sleep early and didn’t like the stench of smoke in the room.

Regarding bullying claims the students point out that they aren’t murderers. The incidents described, according to the group of friends, were just ‘rough play’ and jokes between themselves. They state that Vangelis never appeared annoyed that they would mock wrestle. They state that they didn’t demean him and that he was just one of their friends, sharing a relationship that also involved a mix of comaraderie and also rough play.

The friends from Crete are annoyed by the fact that negative comments are being made on the internet concerning their relationship with the unfortunate boy that went missing. They say that whoever has information should tell the police.

So far, however, all investigations have been to no avail. There has been no sign of life. The findings gathered so far show three things, according to Proto Thema:

* political intervention

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* responsibility on the part of the Dairy School’s administration

* the boy’s ill-treatment from a group of fellow students

The boy’s family has been informed about the details of the findings but has not commented. Private detective George Tsoukalis postponed a meeting that he had scheduled on Sunday with Vangelis’ internet friends as special investigations are expected to take place on Saturday and Sunday.

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