Cypriot army captain pleads guilty to serial killings, breaks down

NICOSIA, June 24 (Reuters) - A Greek Cypriot army captain
pleaded guilty on Monday to charges of killing five women and
two children, all non-Cypriots, during a three-year murder spree
which authorities stumbled across by accident.
The case, involving the worst peace-time atrocities against
women in Cyprus in memory, has triggered outrage and horror on
an island where serious crime is relatively rare, and forced the
resignation of the justice minister and the police chief.
Nicos Metaxas, 35, has been charged with premeditated murder
and abduction of the seven - who came from the Philippines,
Romania and Nepal - between Sept. 2016 and July 2018. The two
children, aged six and eight, were daughters of two of the
women.
Metaxas was taken under heavy security on Monday to a
courthouse in the capital Nicosia wearing a bullet-proof vest,
and appeared without a lawyer.
He broke down in tears as police read the indictment against
him. "I have committed abhorrent crimes," he said, expressing
condolences to the families of the victims.
A guilty plea in the Cyprus judicial process means the court
will hear the facts of the case and then proceeed to sentencing.
He faces seven life sentences. The court is expected to deliver
its verdict later on Monday.
Police say the accused met the women online. The victims
were mostly employed as housekeepers on the island and
disappeared between September 2016 and August 2018.
The police chief was sacked and the justice minister
resigned following accounts of bungled investigations by police
who did not take the disappearances seriously because the women
were foreign.
The first victim was found dead by tourists shooting
pictures at a mining shaft in late April, unravelling the
macabre killing spree. The last victim discovered, the
six-year-old child, was found in a lake on July 12.