The journalist Taki Theodoracopulos has been handed a 12-month suspended prison sentence by a judge in Switzerland for an attempted rape in 2009.
The 87-year-old, who writes a column for the Spectator, was found guilty of attacking a woman on a ski weekend at his chalet in Gstaad in the Swiss Alps.
During a nine-hour hearing at the Oberland regional court in Thun on Thursday, Theodoracopulos dismissed the woman’s accusations as “monstrous” and a plot to destroy his career. He said he was “absolutely not guilty”.
The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, broke down in tears as she told the court about the violent assault. She said: “I felt like a piece of meat. I didn’t feel that he saw me as a person at all. I tried very hard to put the incident behind me but it really shook my confidence professionally and it has had ongoing emotional consequences.”
The woman said another journalist had invited her to Theodoracopulos’s chalet, called Palataki or Little Palace, in early 2009.
She explained why she had waited a decade to report the attack, having first made a complaint to the Metropolitan police in 2019. “I didn’t think anyone would believe me. The accused was, is, a wealthy and powerful man. I thought everyone would think I was lying and I was trying to make my way in [my career].
“But, also, I felt ashamed. I thought I shouldn’t have accepted the invitation, I shouldn’t have gone, and that if I tried to say something everyone would say it was my own fault.”
In his sentencing remarks, the judge, Martin Blatter, said her statements were “stringent and credible” and that she had no motive to make a false accusation. He also said the career destruction plot described by Theodoracopulos made no sense.
He found Theodoracopulos guilty of attempted rape and suspended a 12-month sentence for two years. He also ordered the Greek-born writer to pay court costs and compensation to the victim. Theodoracopulos’s lawyer indicated that they would appeal against the verdict.
The judge’s comments were made in German but translated into English by a court-appointed interpreter. Theodoracopulos and the woman were questioned by the judge via the translator.
During her evidence, the victim told how Theodoracopulos’s inappropriate behaviour started shortly after her arrival at the chalet where she shared a room with another woman. She said: “While we were in the shower the accused came into the room. He stared at us while we were naked and made unpleasant remarks, but at the time we just thought he was being ridiculous.”
The woman told how Theodoracopulos attempted to kiss her later that evening, saying: “I tried to brush him off as discreetly as possible. It was embarrassing, but I didn’t feel threatened or frightened at all.”
She cried as she began detailing the attempted rape which took place hours later. The woman explained that her roommate had gone home so she was alone in bed when Theodoracopulos came in.
She said: “He came towards the bed and started kissing me again. Again, I wasn’t frightened, I just thought he was being silly, and then he pushed me down on the bed and he was saying to me: ‘I want to fuck you. Come on, I want to fuck you’…
“It was very physical. I was really frightened because he was a very strong man, an athlete, and I thought it would be easy if I just let him do it so he didn’t hurt me. But I kept on pushing him away from me and eventually he stopped and I told him in a quiet voice to leave the room.”
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The next morning, she told one of the women on the trip that Theodoracopulos had come into her room. The victim recalled: “[She] said to me: ‘Did you get the letter? They always get the letter.’… So I went back to the bedroom and it was lying on the floor as though it had been pushed under the door.” She said she found a letter written by Theodoracopulos which referred to the fact that she had rejected him.
In his evidence, Theodoracopulos said the woman made the claims in response to an article he had written at the beginning of the #MeToo movement.
Wearing a dark grey suit and blue shirt, the grey-haired and bespectacled writer said: “The plaintiff obviously openly admitted in the original accusation of me that she remembered all this stuff that never happened when she read something I’d written making fun of #MeToo. [She] said her memory was triggered – a rather well used phrase.”
He added: “I’m outraged at these monstrous accusations.”
Before the judge adjourned to consider his verdict, Theodoracopulos was asked if he had any final words. He said: “I find it extraordinary. I have nothing against the accuser apart from what she has done now. Out of the blue two years ago she accused me of something that is totally made up, totally made up …
“It’s a great travesty of justice and I shouldn’t be here. I’m a Christian and I don’t hold grudges but I might make an exception in this case.”
