A former Merseyside royal marine is leading the way in helping the Greek authorities to improve on how to respond to gender-based violence in their country.
Matthew Lodge, originally from Crosby and who now serves as the UK’s ambassador to Greece, signed off on funding to allow Greek officials to visit the country to train to deal with domestic violence and serious sexual assault cases effectively. Following on from this, a group of Greek delegates arrived in the UK earlier this month to attend workshops with police officers from the Met, Bedfordshire and Scotland.
The visit comes almost a year after British national, Caroline Crouch, was killed in front of her 11-month-old baby daughter. Husband Babis Anagnostopoulos is currently on trial accused of murder after claiming the family had been targeted by burglars.
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Athens-based Matthew said: “Greece has increasingly embraced a culture of zero tolerance to gender-based violence in recent years and these visits are a clear demonstration of this progress. The willingness of authorities across Greece to work with the British Embassy on this topic makes us optimistic for the future. All of this work should help make British holidaymakers, and ex-pats living in Greece, feel safer and better supported."
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is funding the visits with the aim of improving the support offered to British nationals reporting gender-based violence in Greece. FCDO figures showed that almost 1,000 British nationals reported being raped or sexually assaulted between 2016 and 2018. In the three years from the start of 2016 to the end of 2018, most sexual assaults happened in Spain where at least 218 were reported, whereas in Greece, there were at least 74.
Matthew, a 53-year-old dad-of-two, added: “We are determined to do anything we can to help survivors of rape and sexual assaults by showcasing the survivor-focused approach used in the UK. I think the Greek authorities should be applauded for their willingness to work together with us as they strive to improve the way these exceptionally difficult cases are handled.
“A Greek delegation including a deputy prosecutor, four police officers and two psychologists recently visited Scotland to get an insight into how gender-based violence is handled. People can be proud that the Greek authorities are using the UK’s expertise, to shape the way they deal with these sorts of cases in future.”
As Covid-19 restrictions start to ease, Greece will again be one of the most popular holiday hotspots: three million Brits travelled annually to the country before the UK was forced into lockdown in March 2020, while an estimated 45,000 ex-pats call Greece home. UK consular staff supported 57 rape or sexual assault cases over a two year period, with British victims reporting concerns about how Greek authorities responded in a number of cases.
British victims have been calling for the right to give evidence by video link to avoid the trauma of re-visiting the country where they were attacked. The UK Government is encouraging their Greek counterparts to look in to setting up the country’s first dedicated sexual assault referral centre.
Matthew, who was a royal marine for almost 10 years before joining the Foreign Office in 1996, said: “These visits demonstrate that there is a genuine willingness by the Greek authorities to both recognise that there is an issue, and to work with us to try and identify ways of addressing shortcomings.
“By highlighting the support made available to victims in the UK, we’re hoping to share our experience with our Greek colleagues and help them explore setting up similar structures. We take our duty to provide the best support for British nationals in distress overseas extremely seriously and both domestic abuse and sexual assault cases are particularly harrowing for our consular staff to deal with.
"It’s a challenging situation for tourists when you have a language barrier to overcome, but we’re hoping that this work will help ensure that British nationals can visit and live in Greece safely and securely and, if anything should happen to them, that they will receive the support they need.”
