Nicos Metaxas on Monday pleaded guilty to murdering five women and two children.
The 35 year old army officer who went by the online name of Orestis, appeared before Nicosia Criminal Court under tight security and without a lawyer where he was charged on seven counts.
Metaxas pleaded guilty to killing, Livia Fiorentina Bunea, 36, and her eight year old daughter Elena Natalya, Maricar Valdez Arquiola, 29, Mary Rose Tibiurco, 38, and her six year old daughter Sierra Granze, Asmita Kahta Mista 30, and Arian Palanas, 28.
In a statement to the court, a visibly shaken Metaxas apologised for his abhorrent crimes.
“I have committed abhorrent crimes. I acknowledge my crimes. I cannot go back in time. I can help in the investigation. To plead guilty and not burden the Republic of Cyprus any more. I apologise to the families of the victims and to the souls of the victims. And finally to Cyprus society which wonders how one of its members could commit such an act,” he said.
He also apologised to his own family and said he was at the disposal of police for in depth study so that such situations can be avoided in the past.
Sentence will be passed later today.
Metaxas had confessed in writing to killing five women and two young girls over the period of 2016 to 2018 and showed police investigators where he had dumped the bodies at four different locations – an abandoned mine shaft in Mitsero, a dry well at the firing range in Orounta, Kokkini Limni (Red Lake) in Mitsero and Memi Lake in Xyliatou.
In court on Monday, the prosecution read the facts of the case, beginning with the discovery of the body of the first victim Mary Rose Tibiurcio, 38, in an abandoned mine shaft in Mitsero which triggered a 68 day investigation.
Counsel for the prosecution explained how police had identified the defendant through his Google and Badoo profile. They said the account Orestes35 had last been used on April 14, 2019, the day the body of the first victim was found.
As regards Maricar, the investigator said that the defendant had spoken with her and photographed her residence permit on his phone.
On April 25, he had confessed in a statement to the seven murders and on the same day showed investigators where he had dumped four bodies – three at Kokkini Limni and one Orounta firing range.
He also described to them how he had tied the cement blocks to three suitcases where he put the bodies of his three victims and threw them into Kokkini Limni.
The prosecution said the army officer had met Livia through the Badoo site and had also met her daughter.
“He killed her during sexual intercourse in revenge,” the court heard. He had told investigators that he believed the child was being pimped and he killed her too because he wanted to “free her,” the investigator said citing the defendant’s statement.
He confessed to killing Maricar at his house.
As regards Mary Rose, he first told police that he was considering entering into a serious relationship with her, which was why he wanted to meet her daughter, Sierra. He then changed his statement and said he suspected Mary Rose would pimp the child for money. He told the two to go to sleep and he strangled both of them, the court heard.
He faces the biggest sentence ever handed down in Cyprus – seven life sentences.
The most severe sentence so far in Cyprus was five life sentences handed down in the 2012 murders in Ayia Napa.
More soon
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https://in-cyprus.com/serial-murder-trial-to-start-on-monday/
