According to local media, a British father accused of raping his own daughter and detained on the Greek vacation island of Crete has been freed after DNA testing disproved his guilt.
Tammi Forsythe informed police that she had been attacked on a deserted beach in the town of Malia on June 9 after giving up her right to remain anonymous to MailOnline in order to speak out about the case’s police shortcomings.
After reviewing CCTV footage from a bar where the 33-year-old and his 62-year-old father, Philip, had been drinking the same night, detectives sensationally arrested the man and charged him with carrying out the attack.
According to the Greek news site Protothema, however, the DNA samples used to identify Tammi as evidence do not match those provided by Mr. Forsythe.
The astounding development, which Tammi insisted would occur, indicates that Mr. Forsythe should be released from custody and permitted to travel back to the UK.
Throughout the investigation, Tammi and her father insisted that he could not have attacked her and criticized the police for their handling of the case.
It is just the most recent high-profile rape case involving a Briton that Greek police have handled poorly; in 2019, a woman who claimed several men had gang-raped her in Cyprus was herself detained and charged with wasting police time.
It’s not easy for me to come out publicly as a rape victim, but the world needs to know how my father and I are suffering, Tammi, a mother of four, previously told MailOnline.
He did not rape me, and he is entirely innocent. We have been horribly mistreated by the Greek police.
According to them, the victim was just a drunken British tourist who was raped. We wouldn’t have received this treatment if we were Greek citizens.
“The police made up their minds that my father was guilty from the beginning and have not done anything about finding the real rapist,” she continued. Now is the right time for me to speak up so that justice can be served.
In the tourist town of Malia, which is lined with rowdy bars and nightclubs popular with Brits, Mr. Forsythe was detained on June 11, two days after Tammi reported that she had been sexually assaulted while out with him.
He is now being held in a prison in the city of Tripoli on the Greek mainland and is awaiting the results of DNA tests.
Mr Forsythe has denied perpetrating the rape and has been warned by Greek prosecutors that he will either face trial within 18 months or could be released depending on the outcome of the results.
Under Greek law, he has only been unofficially charged with the offence.
Tammi, who lives with her father in Hull, claimed that she is still in Crete, where she has been speaking to him on the phone each day.
She cried: ‘I just get to speak to him for a few minutes.
Because he hasn’t done anything wrong, he is in a terrible psychological state and doesn’t comprehend why this has happened.
My father has diabetes and several other major medical conditions.
He hasn’t eaten well for five days and is on the verge of breaking down.
I’m genuinely concerned that he could pass away as a result of everything.
Following the attack, Tammi admitted that she worries that she might be pregnant. She is the divorced mother of a girl, 15, three sons, 12, 10, and 5; and a daughter, 15.
This holiday has become a horror film, Tammi remarked.
Since I’ve been feeling a little under the weather and missed my period, my anxiety and stress have only become worse.
It’s not like me because I’m fairly consistent generally.
“I am 60% certain that I am pregnant.” The British Consulate has informed me that I must visit a medical facility for a blood test, but I require companionship because I’ve been having such severe panic attacks.
However, I’m here alone and have no one to turn to for assistance.
After the Covid travel restrictions were lifted, Tammi and her father travelled abroad for the first time to celebrate her father’s birthday. On June 19, they were scheduled to return to the UK.
We were promised that the DNA test would be a priority, but that hasn’t turned out to be the case, Tammi said.
When we will receive the results hasn’t been made clear to me. The Greek government simply doesn’t seem to give a damn. They believe they have their man, and my father can rot in jail, so to speak.
According to Greek officials, Mr. Forsythe was detained after CCTV footage from the Help bar revealed that he had engaged in “inappropriate sexual activity” with Tammi in the hours before the attack.
MailOnline was able to obtain the CCTV footage, and Tammi claims that her father did nothing wrong, saying, “I was so inebriated that I could hardly move.”
He only wanted to wake me up so he could drive me back to the hotel and put me to bed.
I was so inebriated and angry that I lashed out at him. I believe I once bit his hand.
The CCTV footage only captures a father attempting to assist his severely inebriated daughter.
Nothing sexual was occurring between us. It’s a repulsive and disgusting thing to say.
Tammi recalled that she and her father arrived at the Help Bar on Malia’s main strip on Thursday, June 9, around 1:30 a.m., and left around 4.55 a.m. She drank Sambuca shots for the majority of the evening while he drank pints.
“I was so inebriated, I could hardly stand up,” Tammi acknowledged. I managed to stumble out of the pub somehow, but the argument went on. I was irate because all I wanted was to continue sleeping and be left alone.
“We left the house and took a seat on a concrete wall. I pulled my father away and told him to f*** off as he tried to wrap his arms around me. I was so inebriated that I had no idea what I was saying or doing. All I wanted was for him to go away.
Tammi revealed that she hobbled along a road and slipped into a dead-end alley, where she fell and was unable to get up because of her intoxication. This happened after her father left to go back to their hotel.
Around 7.15 a.m., she continued, “I noticed a man standing above me.” He took hold of my legs and dragged me behind a bush where he raped me.
I was really taken aback by the experience, and after it occurred, I was too terrified to move for nearly 15 minutes.
She acknowledged that she was too inebriated to provide the Greek police a detailed description of her attacker and that she could only remember that he was shorter than her and was wearing a white t-shirt.
After the assault, Tammi disclosed that she went back to her hotel at around 8am, dozed off for a while, then remembered the rape and called the British Consulate in Crete, who advised her to report it to the police right away.
“I told the police about the night’s events, including where my father and I had consumed alcohol, and they escorted me there to retrace my movements,” she stated.
“I informed them that I was severely inebriated, but when they saw the CCTV film, they got it completely wrong,” Everything I said was utterly misconstrued by them.
When I told them that my father was dressed all in white, they mistook it for the attacker.
“I was treated more like a perpetrator than a victim, and now that I’ve been through this horrible crime, I’m suffering even more because of what they’re doing to my father,” the victim said.
She thanked the British Consulate for their assistance, saying that she doesn’t believe she could have survived without it.
They have treated me brilliantly at every turn. I’m really grateful to them.
Former nail technician Tammi, who is presently unemployed, declared that she is determined to remain in Greece until her father is released. She was one of his four sisters and called him “the best dad in the world.”
She sobbed, “My dad is really close to all of us, and he is quite protective of his girls. This trip was supposed to be a wonderful father-daughter getaway, but it has instead turned into hell for us.
As she waits for the matter to be determined, Tammi calculates that she has already paid close to £4,000.
Fortunately, my father has some savings, which I have been using, she said. I’m staying in Greece for however long it takes and won’t be returning to Hull without him.