Holiday reps attacked in Rhodes

Detectives today launched a manhunt after a British holiday rep was raped and two others sexually assaulted at knifepoint on the Greek holiday island of Rhodes.

The women were all attacked at the beach resort of Faliraki, where the infamous ITV series "Club Reps" was filmed last year.

Greek security police are also investigating the recent assault of another British woman and an indecent assault on another holidaymaker.

All five incidents have happened in the last 10 days, and, as the tourist season gets underway there are increasing fears holidaying British women are being targeted by rapists in the resort.

The rape victim was attacked and beaten at the home she shares with her Greek husband and two children on the island. Police believe her rapist followed her home.

Police have already scoured the island for suspects and have detained and questioned a number of suspects as they try to prevent a plague of rapes of British women on the island like last year when five Britons were attacked.

Now, mindful of Rhodes' lucrative reputation as a top destination for tens of thousands of British and Scandinavian holidaymakers, the Greek authorities have vowed to do all they can to catch the culprits.

The attacks come against a backdrop of hedonistic excess by thousands of young British holidaymakers in Faliraki where bars stay open until dawn and drunken Britons, many teenagers, litter the streets at night. The programme "Club Reps" focused on the raunchy sex and alcoholic excesses in the town's 200 nightspots and featured a young woman who set out to have sex with two men at a time and gangs of young men on a binge of drinking and casual sex.

After the documentary, the resort's tourism bosses reported increased bookings for this year.

Now British reps fear they are being targeted by opportunist rapists.

One said: "There are people in Faliraki who just want to take advantage of the situation.

"There are a lot of itinerant workers from all over the world - many of them illegals who are almost impossible for the police to keep track of."

Local police chief Ilias Halivopoulos, who is heading the investigation, said the rape happened late on Friday night and that the victim was flying home today after being examined.

He said: "We have questioned several suspects and we are sure we will catch the man. Last year we had a one hundred per cent success rate in catching and sentencing rape offenders, probably the best rate in the world.

"It is a success we are determined to maintain, both for the sake of British and other tourists here and for the good image of the island of Rhodes in general. This is a holiday haven, and we intend to keep it so."

The local tourism industry has come to describe British and other package holidaymakers there as "night" or "white" tourists, a reference to the fact that many of them spend most of their time drinking and partying on the town at night, sleep during the day and therefore go back home without getting the usual tan.

It has always been after such revelry that the rape attacks have taken place. Two years ago, a young British tourist was raped and then murdered after being forcibly taken from Faliraki into a nearby forest as she headed home from a party.

The two culprits, both of them immigrants from Eastern Europe who had found jobs in the local tourism industry, were discovered and sentenced to heavy jail terms. But one of them had managed to escape home to the former Soviet republic of Moldavia and so was sentenced in absentia, while the other is still being held in a Greek jail.

Police chief Halivopoulos, the highest ranking officer for the Greek Dodecanese islands situated in the Eastern Aegean Sea close to Turkey, said he and his men are concerned that the first rape incident for this year took place so early in the tourism season.

He said: "We have determined that it is a real case of rape. Medical tests and all other evidence showed that the victim was attacked, bruised, scratched and sexually assaulted. There is not a single doubt about it."

The police chief denied reports that there had in fact been four rape incidents in Faliraki over the past five days, and that a dangerous rapist tracking British women is on the loose.

"I can assure you that there has only been one case", he said. "There must be confusion with the incidents last year."