Two Versions; One Tale

A young Greek woman of 26, she was sitting at the Electra Bar in Malia on Wednesday on the island of Crete. Marina Fanouraki is a student at Crete University. It's what young people everywhere do for entertainment and to meet with friends. She hardly anticipated that the evening would turn out to be the nightmare that it resulted in. One doesn't, after all, look for that kind of trouble.

She was relaxed, sitting with her friends, casually discussing things of mutual interest when suddenly a young man "forcefully seized me from the behind and between the legs". Women don't look for these types of assignations; to be "accosted from behind and shamelessly molested" in a public place, where they have every right to believe that they will be safe from sexual assault.

That women should be safe anywhere, at any time, with or without the presence of friends is a given. Unfortunately, often enough the given is not recognized by sociopaths or by young men who have imbibed one too many intoxicating drinks causing them to take leave of their senses. At which time they may indulge in behaviour that would otherwise shame them. Or not. It isn't unheard-of that young women have wrongly accused men of assault.

Ms. Fanouraki's instinctive reaction was to toss the contents of her glass of anise-flavoured liqueur at the stranger who was abusing her, in the hopes that it would help to sober him up. At the very least, stop him. "He was completely drunk and must have set fire to himself while trying to light a cigarette", she explained, appearing in court in Heraklion.

The young man, a British man on holidays in Crete; Stuart Feltham, a 20-year-old trainee plumber, is being treated for serious burn injuries in hospital. Despite that Ms. Fanouraki claimed to have seen the young man displaying his genitals while fondling her from behind, and asking her to provide him with sex, she did not abandon him when he was set afire, she claimed.

"In fact, when we saw that he was on fire, we actually tried to put the fire out", she averred, charged with inflicting serious physical damage through second-degree burns to Mr. Feltham, extending from his chest to his genital area. Wherever, in fact, the alcohol fell as it swirled out of the glass held by Ms. Fanouraki.

A fellow Briton, a friend of Mr. Feltham, who was beside him at the bar at the time of the incident explained for his extremely ill friend who was incapable of appearing in court that "Stuart accidentally bumped into the girl. He just turned into a fireball and was really badly burned all the way from his neck down to his crotch".

The charge against Ms. Fanouraki is that after she had splashed Mr. Feltham with the alcoholic drink, she ignited the alcohol with her cigarette lighter. The young man's lawyer stated "The young Briton did not sexually harass her and did nothing to justify such an attack. Not only did she throw alcohol all over him, but she actually set him on fire with her lighter."

Mr. Chatwin's friend explained that they were part of a group of five tourists from Swindon College. "He's really upset about the claims that he was getting naked and groping the girl, because he's not like that." But Ms. Fanouraki has her local champions who believe her to have courageously defended herself against a sexual attack; "Women inCrete have always been fiery, like her", said a resident of Heraklion.

The truth is somewhere, in those narratives so wildly differing one from the other. There is the word of the victim, but who was the victim? Whether the young man or the young woman is not quite clear. But there is also the testimony of witnesses. Who committed which assault? An accidental shove in a crowded bar erroneously taken for a grope? The ash from a cigarette falling and setting alight alcohol-soaked clothing?

The truth cannot be only in the eye of the beholder.