A tearful Greek Cypriot serial killer sentenced to life in prison on Monday, apologized to his seven victims after pleading guilty to the murders of five foreign women and their two young daughters.
Cypriot army captain Nikos Metaxas, 35, pleaded guilty on Monday to seven counts of premeditated murder and kidnapping with the aim to murder and conceal the bodies.
It is the first time in Cyprus legal history that an accused has faced seven counts of pre-meditated murder which carry a life sentence. They were murdered between September 2016 and the summer of 2018.
The court handed down seven life sentences, five of which will run consecutively, no penalty was imposed for the other charges as they were related to the murders.
In passing sentence, the criminal court said the accused “embarked on a campaign to kill defenceless women”.
In a broken voice, and without a lawyer, a repentant Metaxas told the court he assumed his responsibilities but said “however much I want to, I can’t turn back time”.
“I acknowledge my guilt… I apologise to the families of the victims and to the souls of the victims,” he told the court in a statement before his sentence was delivered.
Metaxas said he could not explain why he behaved with such brutality to become the island first serial killer.
“Cypriot society will be wondering how one of its members reached this point. I have also asked myself why; I have not yet managed to find an answer. I have committed hateful crimes,” said Metaxas.
“I'm sorry for my relatives and my children, they are not to blame for any of this," he added.
The trial comes after a two-month search for the bodies of his victims. Police have recovered the bodies of all the victims after the suspect directed them to his disposal sites, including a toxic lake.
The first body was found by a German couple in an abandoned mineshaft on April 14 and the last body – a six-year-old child was dragged from a lake wrapped in a carpet on June 12.
The Greek Cypriot army officer confessing to murdering five foreign women – from the Philippines, Romania and Nepal and two of their daughters in a string of killings that shocked the Mediterranean holiday island.
Apart from two bodies found in a mineshaft, the majority were dumped in two lake – including inside suitcases — and the other near a firing range.
The killings, which went undetected for nearly three years, came to light when tourists spotted a body brought to the surface of a mine shaft by unusually heavy rains.
That triggered a murder investigation which led to the army captain's arrest on April 18.
The failure by the authorities to follow up on reports that the women were missing has sparked ire and led to the dismissal of the police chief and the resignation of the justice minister.
