SOLDIERS WHO SEXUALLY ABUSED AND KILLED TOUR GUIDE ARE FREED
All three former British soldiers jailed for life after raping and killing a Danish tour guide in Cyprus in 1994 will be out of prison in the next few days, British and Cypriot officials said yesterday.The first, Allan Ford of Birmingham, was released on August 8, the island's justice minister, Sophocles Sophocleous revealed.
Justin Fowler, 38, of Falmouth, will be released tomorrow and Geoffrey Pernell, 36, of Oldbury in the West Midlands, on August 21.
It is understood that the British high commission in Nicosia is arranging to fly the men back to Britain because of concern that if they stayed on the island they would be attacked by vigilantes.
The three former soldiers of the Royal Green Jackets regiment were jailed for life in 1996 after they seized Louise Jensen outside a night club at the Cypriot tourist centre of Ayia Napa and killed her with a shovel.
In 1998, their life sentences for murder were reduced on appeal to 25 years for manslaughter on the grounds that they were young and drunk at the time and had no previous convictions.
Cypriot law also provides for early release for good behaviour, and in 2003 all prisoners received a presidential pardon that cut their sentences by a quarter.
"It is not that they were granted a [special] pardon," Mr Sophocleous said.
At their trial prosecutors said they had raped the 23-year-old, whose body was found in a grave near the resort.
She was identified only by a silver ring.
She was hit 15 times with the shovel.
The murder provoked an outcry on the island - where violent crime is relatively rare - and led the army to declare Ayia Napa out of bounds to British troops and restrict their access to other tourist areas.
The three men were discharged from the army after they were convicted.
