Christoforos Karayiannas & Marios Karayiannas Arrested

Father and son remanded in Paralimni over brutal beating of British property buyer
By Jean Christou
(archive article - Friday, January 18, 2008)

TWO property developers, a father and son were remanded yesterday by the Paralimni court for four days suspected of assaulting British home buyer Conor O’ Dwyer with whom they were engaged in a legal dispute.

Police officer Marios Christou told the Cyprus Mail the two men had been arrested late on Wednesday and appeared in court yesterday.

“They were remanded for four days,” he said. Christou said police were also looking for a third man suspected of being involved in the assault.

A police bulleting issued later in the day said the two men aged 55 and 32 were being held in connection with a traffic accident, grievous bodily harm and robbery.

During the alleged assault Frenaros village on Monday, O’ Dwyer told police that the two men had taken his camera, which had recorded the attack.

O’Dwyer, 38, who has widely publicised the details of his property dispute with the developers on youtube and on the website lyingbuilder.com, was kicked in the kidneys and had his head stomped on, according to his lawyer Yiannos Georgiades.

The Briton had already pressed charges over another alleged beating by the father and son developers in March 2006 while fighting his ongoing property case at court. They were later charged over the assault but the charges were dropped.

O’ Dwyer had gone to Frenaros to take pictures of changes to the area around the house to produce as evidence in the land wrangle because he thought the photos might prove important later.

After receiving a phone call from the woman to whom the house was later sold by the developers after they unilaterally cancelled their contact with O’Dwyer and kept £75,000 of his money, three men showed up.
They blocked his car with theirs and when he got out of the vehicle, allegedly set upon him and took his camera.

O’ Dwyer was admitted to Larnaca hospital the same day and was due to be released yesterday but Georgiades said doctors were keeping him in again last night.

“He is still in hospital,” Georgiades said. “He has difficulty in walking. He is able to go a short distance but then has to sit again. He is having a difficult time.”


Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008

Karayiannas Property Developers - No Accident!!

‘It was no accident’
By Jean Christou
(archive article - Thursday, January 17, 2008)

A BRITISH property buyer who was allegedly assaulted by developers with whom he is engaged in a legal wrangle was yesterday still in hospital, his lawyer said.

No one has yet been arrested for the alleged assault, according to Yiannos Georgiades, the lawyer for Briton Conor O’Dwyer who has been in Larnaca hospital since Monday.

“I spoke with the police but the investigation is not done yet, and they haven’t arrested anyone,” said Georgiades.

“He is still in hospital and although physically he is better, he is terrified over what happened to him.”

O’Dwyer, 38, who has widely publicised his case on youtube and on the website lyingbuilder.com, was kicked in the kidneys and had his head stomped on, according to Georgiades.

O’Dwyer had already pressed charges over another alleged beating by the father and son developers in March 2006 while fighting his ongoing property case at court. They were later charged over the assault.

On Monday at around 11am, O’Dwyer went to the disputed property in Frenaros in the Famagusta district to take pictures of changes to the area around the house to produce as evidence in the land wrangle because he thought the photos might prove important later.

However Georigiades said the woman to whom the developers re-sold the house after unilaterally cancelling O’Dwyer’s contract and keeping £75,000 of his money, “made a phone call” and two men appeared shortly afterwards that O’Dwyer identified as the developers.

“He was telling me how one of them put his foot on his head and pressed it into the ground during the assault,” said Georgiades who visited O’Dwyer in hospital.

The incident was witnessed by onlookers, and police initially said they were investigating a car accident. But Georgiades insisted it was no accident.

An eyewitness contacted the Cyprus Mail yesterday and said it had been an accident, that two vehicles had collided and that O’Dwyer, and the two men in the other car had become embroiled in a scuffle. The eyewitness refused to give his name however.

But Geogiades said it had not been a mere incident over bumping vehicles. He said the two men had grabbed at O’Dwyer when they realised he was wearing a hidden camera. The camera has not been seen since but O’Dwyer saw it in the hands of his alleged attackers when they stood later talking to the police, Georgiades said.

“The start of the incident was captured on the hidden camera but then someone shouted ‘camera’ and they spotted the wire,” he said.

He said O’Dwyer had told the police after the incident that one of the men was holding his camera but there was a lot of confusion and it wasn’t confiscated from the man by the police.
“I am really disgusted with the way things happened,” said Georgiades. “I want to believe they (the police) will do something.”

The lawyer said one of the police who was called to the scene had also given a statement to the effect that the developers had allegedly called them initially to go and remove O’Dwyer from the area and if they did not, he would go himself to remove him from in front of the house.

O’Dwyer is due to be released from hospital today.



Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008

Karayiannas Developers - Brutal Beating in Paralimni

Brutal beating in Paralimni
By Jean Christou
archive article - Wednesday, January 16, 2008)

A BRITISH property buyer was hospitalised for two days on Monday after allegedly being badly beaten by the developers with whom he is in dispute, his lawyer said yesterday.

Conor O’Dwyer, 38, who has widely publicised his case on YouTube and on the website lyingbuilder.com, was kicked in the kidneys and had his head stomped on, according to his lawyer Yiannos Georgiades.

O’Dwyer had already pressed charges over another alleged beating by the father and son developers in March 2006 while fighting his ongoing property case at court. They were later charged over the assault.

According to Georgiades, on Monday at around 11am O’Dwyer went to the disputed property in the Famagusta district to take pictures of changes to the area around the house to produce as evidence in the land wrangle.

“He thought the photos might prove important later,” said Georgiades.

Upon his arrival, the woman to whom the developers re-sold the house after unilaterally cancelling O’Dwyer’s contract and keeping £75,000 of his money, allegedly “made a phone call” and two men appeared shortly afterwards that O’Dwyer identified as the developers.

“Conor was forced out of his car. One stepped on his head and the other kicked him in the kidneys,” said Georgiades, adding that they also took his camera.

“He was bleeding and there was a crowd of mostly women screaming and shouting for them to stop. He was crying out for help and no one helped him.”

Georgiades said someone eventually called 112 and police showed up with an ambulance. A British woman also took pictures of what was going on, he said.

O’Dwyer was taken to Paralimni hospital and from there sent to Larnaca.

“He has head injuries, external bruising, internal pain in the kidney region and he is badly shaken,” said Georgiades.

Doctors decided to keep him in until today to run tests and X-rays.

Georgiades said he had spoken to police about the incident. “They said they were investigating the ‘accident’,” said Georgiades. “I told them it wasn’t an accident. They didn’t arrest anyone but they did take statements.”

Georgiades said he spoke yesterday with a senior officer at Famagusta CID who said they were dealing with the case. O’Dwyer gave a statement to police yesterday afternoon from his hospital bed.

The senior officer dealing with the case, George Economou, told the Cyprus Mail yesterday police would take statements from all concerned and decide if there was a case to press charges.

“Conor is just giving his statement now,” said Economou. Asked if there would be any arrests, he said he would know more today. “It depends on the investigation,” he said.

Georgiades said he has also informed the British High Commission.

With regard to the previous assault case against the developers, Georgiades said the charges had been dropped by the Attorney-general ostensibly because O’Dwyer had not shown up for a hearing.

But the lawyer said when the last hearing was due, O’Dwyer, who lives in the UK, had been told by prosecutors not to bother coming to Cyprus because the hearing would likely be adjourned.

“He didn’t come and on the day of the court case, the prosecutor said the judge wouldn’t give an adjournment so the proceedings against the two men would be stayed”.

O’Dwyer is now entering the third year of his property saga.

He and his wife were going to buy a house on a development in Frenaros village. However when they viewed the construction area when the project was coming along, they realised the surrounding homes were not those specified in the original plan.

This would have resulted in a total lack of privacy as two balconies on other properties would have been looking into their garden. O’Dwyer has said the reason they had chosen the site in the first place was for the privacy that was promised.

After several run-ins with the developers over the changes to the surrounding area, and although the house is registered to them at the Land Registry given they had paid for most of it, the O’Dwyers subsequently discovered that the developers had sold it to another British family, who now reside there. The O’Dwyers have not received their money back.

When O’Dwyer launched his story on youtube video, backed up by documents and taped conversations with the developers and their lawyers, Interior Minister Christos Patsalides ordered an investigation in August last year, but no results have been forthcoming.

Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008