Another case that has been identified with the Greek one #metoo in the artistic field he is taken to the audience of the criminal court after much acclaim trials of Petrou Filippidis and his Dimitris Lignadis. The 43-year-old actor and director with a career in the USA Lambros Philippou referred to be tried by final will of the Appeals Council of Athens for the crimes of attempted rape in succession, but also of rape, which he allegedly committed against two women in December 2012 and August 2013.
This is a case file that has literally gone through 40 waves, as initially the actor was accused of sexually abusing four women, two of whom are actually sisters. Subsequently, the competent prosecutor, with her proposal, requested the 43-year-old to be referred to trial and for the four complaints against him, but the Council of Misdemeanors of Athens (first degree) had decided that the actor should be tried only for two of them.
For his part, Lambros Filippou, vehemently denying the offenses attributed to him, filed an appeal against the decision of the first instance council, which was however rejected. The secondary Judicial Council, consisting this time of appellants, upheld his referral to trial for the two complaints against him and for an equal number of felonies, which concern the sexual abuse of the two women.
The 43-year-old actor and director with a career in the USA, Lambros Philippou, was accused of sexually abusing four women, two of whom are actually sisters.
The will
According to the final will of the Board of Appeals, which reveals the “THEME”, the actor will be tried in the next period (s.s.: the determination of the trial is expected) by Mixed Jury Court for attempted rape on Christmas Day 2012 (December 25 and 26) against a then 19-year-old woman.
The specific complainant is the sister of a well-known actress, with an international career in fact, who had also reported L. Filippou to the prosecutor’s office for raping her. However, her own complaint was not deemed sufficient to substantiate the referral of the 43-year-old to trial. In addition, the actor with the same will is referred to be tried and for committed rape at the expense of another woman, in his summer 2013.
Attempted rape
With regard to the first offense, that of attempted rape and indeed consecutively, the judges-members of the Appeals Council accepted that the actor in December 2012 tried to rape the first – 19-year-old at the time – complainant twice in her apartment in the center of Athens.
“He suddenly entered her bedroom and after pulling down his pants and his underwear, he began to masturbate in front of her,” the judges report, and they accept that despite the girl’s explicit refusal, the accused, using the “his superior physical powers” he grabbed her head with both his hands and tried to force her into a specific act to satisfy his sexual urge. “The complainant resisted, keeping her mouth shut…”, the judges report, but despite all this the 43-year-old managed to satisfy his sexual urge by constantly pressing her head towards his genital area.
The same brutal scene of sexual abuse was repeated against her 19 years old one day later, on December 26, 2012. The 43-year-old, according to the will, while he was in the apartment of the young woman, who was facing various mental problems, came in suddenly in her room “and after locking the door pulled down his pants and the undergarment and began to masturbate in front of her”, satisfying, despite the girl’s resistance, in the same way his sexual drive.
According to what is mentioned in the case file, the actor at that time maintained a stable romantic relationship with the sister of the 19-year-old and was “considered a member of their family”, but “also in a way the big and protective brother” of the patient. As the judges accepted, the accused taking advantage of the 19-year-old’s particularly vulnerable mental state, “which lived under a permanent regime of internal insecurity” and “under the shadow of her older sister, who is said to be a bright personality with the result that a – even latent – competitiveness emerges between them, she took advantage of the familiar circumstances” and carried out the above acts of sexual abuse against the 19-year-old.
The rape
Regarding the second crime, that of rape, which he allegedly committed against another woman the August of 2013 inside his apartment, the will typically states: “The defendant, being in the evening hours with the victim inside his house, during her recitation of a monologue in the context acting lessons where he was delivering to her and while she was sitting in front of a desk he lifted her up, using his superior physical strength, leaned her against the desk where he immobilized her, exerting force on her back with his hands and exerting pressure with his body, resulting in unable to move away, he pulled down her pants and underwear and forcefully inserted his fingers into her vulva…
And this, according to the judges, despite the expressed contrary will of the then 20-year-old sufferer, “which was externalized with sobs on her part throughout the above act”.
Dismissal of the appeal
Lambros Filippou, who from the first moment with his public statement had denied all the complaints against him, had filed an appeal against the referral council, presenting to the appellate Judicial Council new evidence, which in his opinion proves his innocence. Among other things, he argued that the judges of the Misdemeanor Board misinterpreted the relevant provision of Criminal Code for rape, that his defense rights are being violated, and that there are insufficient evidence of guilt against him to bring him to trial.
The Council of Appeals, however, in the will it issued rejected all the grounds of appeal put forward by the 43-year-old as either inadmissible or unfounded. In addition, the actor, providing the council with evidence of the non-existent according to his allegations, the charges against him, he requested that a further main inquiry be ordered. Especially with regard to the 19-year-old and the crime of attempted rape, he stated that the dates that the complainant claims that he tried to rape her himself he wasn’t even in Athens.
For the second complainant, he claimed that “after the alleged rape against her, he continued to give her lessons for her entry into drama school – and in fact gave her 18 courses overall both on an individual and group level”, which she concealed.
The Appeals Council rejected the request for further questioning on legal grounds (at least one ground of appeal should have been accepted), noting however that “it is self-evident that the new evidence invoked by the accused may be presented to the court and taken taken into account by it when examining the substance of the case”.
The discharge
It is worth noting, however, that initially Lambros Filippou was also prosecuted for raping the 19-year-old’s sister. Furthermore, he had been criminally prosecuted for corresponding sexual abuse of another woman, who had also reported him for rape of during the period of time from April of 2014 up to October of 2015. However, the Judicial Council ruled that these two complaints did not constitute charges capable of bringing the 43-year-old to trial, and therefore it was decided that he should not be charged in relation to them.
In particular, the judges, evaluating the evidence presented by the accused (e-mail messages, witness statements of relatives and friends, etc.), ruled for the actress, sister of the 19-year-oldthat the particular complainant was having an affair with him for five years. In fact, the judges, based on evidence from the case file, as well as the statements of the actress herself, state in their opinion that even after a rape incident that she describes in her complaint against Lambros Philippou, she took part in theatrical show while the actor stayed for a long time in the house she kept with her sister!
Besides, as the members of the Judicial Council note, the complainant herself in parts of her testimony refers to the “wild character” of the accused and not to any act of rape, while she has testified that after incidents of alleged rape she had sexual relations with her colleague her with her consent.
Even the actress, according to the judges, did not wish to be separated from the accused not only because, according to her statement, she was in love with him, but also because she perhaps considered “that through this relationship with him she could possibly even after the separation them to reap, as she believed, some benefits from the accused’s involvement with the wider artistic field, which would benefit her and her career”.
As for the second complaint, for which the actor will also not be tried, the judges again ruled that the crime of rape was not established and that the complainant had reached “point of obsession” with him. And in this case, the members of the council talk about the complainant’s voluntary sexual relations with the actor, who may have shown a “wild sexual behavior” towards her, but in no case did he rape her.
Finally, the judges note that this particular woman had chosen to attend individual and group lessons at the actor’s home for exams at a Drama School, even after the sexual abuse she had reported that she had suffered from him. “The complainant, despite the fact that she reported rape, continues to have intercourse with the accused without her amorous mood waning,” the judges noted, citing the mail messages, photos and video footage provided by the actor.