Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
It was 31 December 1993 when 6-year-old Nikos Douris failed to return home from playing. As it was already late, his worried parents, Georgia and Manolis Douris – parents of seven children – immediately alerted the local police station in Krandidi. The police, along with friends and acquaintances, combed the area around the small Greek town of Ermioni, where the family lived. Yet there was no trace of Nikos. In desperation, Nikos’s parents turned to the media, who appealed to the public for help. The whole of Greece shared in the grief of the heartbroken parents until, on New Year’s Day of all days, Nikos’s father, together with his eldest son, discovered his son’s body hidden behind a fence not far from their home. After the body was found, Manolis and his wife Georgia gave countless interviews through their tears, appealing to the public to provide any information that might lead to the arrest of their son’s killer. But following the post-mortem, the murder case took a tragic turn. It emerged that Nikos had been sexually abused. Worse still, his mouth and nose had been covered, causing him to suffocate in agony. Following the post-mortem report, Nikos’s father was regarded as a prime suspect, as he repeatedly contradicted himself during police questioning. Eventually, under pressure, he confessed to having raped and suffocated his son. He blamed the crime on his illness, which he claimed triggered seizures that severely impaired his mental health. According to his statements, anyone in his situation could have done exactly the same. This statement caused nationwide outrage. The initial empathy for the distraught parents suddenly turned into sheer hatred. Manolis had developed mental health problems as a result of his service as a soldier in Cyprus in 1974, where he fought against the Turkish invasion. Since then, he had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, known as ‘Cyprus syndrome’. Following his confession, however, he once again protested his innocence and retracted his confession. He accused his wife and her lover of murdering Nikos in order to finally get rid of him. This would mean his wife would finally be free. As no lawyer was willing to defend Manolis, he was assigned a court-appointed defence lawyer. The hatred towards Manolis was so intense that calls were made for him to face the death penalty – a punishment which had since been abolished. His lawyer pleaded not guilty, as the post-mortem examination of Nikos’s body had revealed pubic hair in his anus and mouth that did not belong to Manolis. A request for a psychiatric assessment, made by Manolis’s lawyer – who, having met his client, believed him to be innocent – was rejected. No DNA test was carried out either. Manolis was found guilty and sentenced to one year’s imprisonment for disorderly conduct, 20 years for rape and life imprisonment for manslaughter. Manolis had a difficult time in prison, as he was treated as scum because he was a child molester. He was repeatedly tortured, abused and raped. Within two years, he was transferred to four different prisons due to abuse by fellow inmates. Finally, on 24 February 1996, he was found hanged by prison officers in an outdoor toilet at Tripoli Prison, using a television cable. He was immediately taken to hospital, where he died. Everything pointed to suicide. To this day, his wife and eldest son maintain that Manolis was innocent and that the murderer of Nikos – who had abused other children in the area – was a wealthy man. A private investigator, who allegedly had evidence of Manolis’s innocence, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in his flat in 2005. He was killed during a burglary. The fact is that Manolis was officially convicted of the horrific crime against his son Nikos, who was just six years old. Whether or not this is the greatest miscarriage of justice in Greek criminal history, who can say!
