For one young woman last September – an economics undergraduate at a Russell Group university – starting university was an especially difficult experience.
She would introduce herself and wait for a glimmer of recognition, a quizzical brow, then the dreaded, ‘Aren’t you that girl who…?’
We can’t state her name here – UK law forbids it – but on the internet’s wild west, it’s easy to rip away the flimsy veneer of anonymity supposed to protect this vulnerable 21-year-old.
A simple search of her name will throw up a mosaic of unpixelated private pictures accompanied by lurid details of the ordeal which has brought her this unwanted attention.
Her story has been shared the world over – in everything from debates about Western licentiousness, state-sanctioned corruption and misogyny, to vile trolling ‘pile-ons’ calling her the worst names imaginable.
For she is the ‘Cyprus gang rape’ girl, a case which first made headlines in 2019 (left). (Pictured top right, the bedroom where the alleged rape took place, bottom right, some of the Israelis accused of rape, also pictured, protesters outside the Cypriot embassy in support of the British teenager.)
