Court sentences underpass molester to 16 years in prison

An Athens court on Tuesday sentenced a 30-year-old man dubbed by media “the dragon of Maroussi” to 16 years and two months in prison without parole over the attempted rape of six women in the northern suburb of Maroussi in 2016.

Judges dismissed the defendant’s claims that he “heard voices compelling” him to “humiliate” his victims, whom he accosted in remote areas, usually in the very early hours of the day.

“The attacks happened in underpasses that did not get a lot of foot traffic,” the prosecution told the court, arguing that they were calculated and not spur-of-the-moment, as the defendant claimed. “The timing was not random either… He was methodical and that is evident from the victims he chose, women he could control.”

The defendant had earlier told the court that he became mentally unhinged after he was left his girlfriend, a Romanian prostitute he identified as “Zorzeta,” and that he did not want to rape the women he attacked, just “shame” and “humiliate” them as he had been humiliated.

He said that Zorzeta had forced him to watch her during her assignations with clients even though he encouraged her to give up prostitution by giving her money and paying for her to take Greek lessons.

After she broke up with him, the 30-year-old claimed, he began seeing Zorzeta’s face in the faces of other women and hearing voices telling him to “grope them and spit on them.” He added that if he had any intention to actually rape them, he would have.