A survivor of the Rotherham child sex exploitation scandal has said she believes the British teenager convicted of falsely accusing 12 men of gang rape in Cyprus is telling the truth.

A survivor of the Rotherham child sex exploitation scandal has said she believes the British teenager convicted of falsely accusing 12 men of gang rape in Cyprus is telling the truth.

Following the ITV documentary, Believe Me: The Cyprus Rape Case, which aired on ITV on Tuesday,  Ella Hill, who describes herself as a 'grooming-gang survivor and honour-based-violence survivor', tweeted the hashtags #believeme and #Ibelieveher in support of the British teenager.  

Speaking out on Twitter, Hill, not her real name, wrote: 'I’m a Rotherham Grooming Gang survivor. One of thousands of girls targeted for rape because I’m white. Told by Twitter that "white people haven’t historically been oppressed." We have. Please listen...#BelieveMe #Ibelieveher.'  

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A survivor of the Rotherham grooming gang scandal, Ella Hill, not her real name, took to Twitter following the airing of ITV's documentary Believe Me: The Cyprus Rape Case to say she believes the story of the British teenager who was convicted last year of falsely accusing 12 Israeli men of gang rape in the Cyprus resort of Ayia Napa

In a thread on social media, Hill said she had been targeted for rape 'because I'm white' and included the hashtags #ibelieveher and #believeme in reference to the ITV documentary 

The Cyprus rape trial saw a Derbyshire woman, now 19, who cannot be named for legal reasons, tell a court on the island that she was raped after striking up a 'normal holiday romance' with a young Israeli - the teenager was convicted of lying

Speaking to Femail, Hill said she had followed the young woman's story 'closely' and believed she was innocent, saying: 'I've followed the story, but I didn’t watch the whole documentary as it’s too traumatising for me. I’ve lived through something very similar. I’ve had the bruises and I’ve got the scars to show for it.' 

She added: 'I do think the Cyprus girl is telling the truth. Her story is familiar to all of us. Authorities are bullied by "Equality and Diversity Officers" into keeping quiet about racist attacks.'  

ITV's 75-minute documentary on the Cyprus rape trial saw the woman, called Emily in the programme, discussing her conviction, and featured new testimonies about the alleged attack in Ayia Napa in July 2019, including compelling statements from the young woman's friends. 

The teenager, from Derbyshire, was convicted of 'public mischief' in the trial after retracting her statement ten days after accusing 12 Israeli men of gang rape. 

At the ensuing trial, the teen, now 19, told the court that Cypriot police had pressured her to change her story. The teen received a suspended four-month jail sentence for 'public mischief' while the group of Israeli suspects walked free.

Speaking to news presenter Julie Etchingham, Emily said of her decision to retract her original statement: 'There was no other way out of that police station other than sign that retraction statement. 

'I thought as soon as I am outside that volatile environment I can sort this out. When you are in that situation, the only sensible thing to do is conform.'  

Rotherham child grooming survivor Hill followed up her initial tweet referencing the programme by saying: 'As a teenager I was called a barrage of racist names as I was beaten and raped over 100 times.' 

She added that she was frequently told by the police: '"There’s nothing we can do about it."'  

Rotherham survivor Hill said she was now using her voice to lobby the Government

A further tweet added: 'I’m on Twitter to call for Government to acknowledge the racist aspects of the abuse we have had to endure. We have been told too many times by Police and Councils that, "White people cant experience racism."'

Sexual exploitation of teenagers in the south Yorkshire town took place between 1997 and 2013 with the National Crime Agency believing there may have been as many as 1,510 victims.

Tuesday's ITV documentary on the Cyprus gang rape case saw friends of the British teenager who claimed she was gang raped by a group of Israeli teens have recalled how they found her 'crying hysterically surrounded by men', in the new documentary.

Friends of the British teenager, now 19, seen, who claimed she was gang raped by a group of Israeli teens have recalled how they found her 'crying hysterically surrounded by men', in new documentary 'Believe Me' which aired on ITV on Tuesday

One friend, Jacob, who had been on the trip with her at the time, recalled how he arrived at the apartment and found the teenager, now 19 - who has been given the name "Emily" in the documentary - surrounded by the teenagers.

He recalled the moment he found her, revealing: 'One of them had his arms over her shoulders as if to pull her close, and the two were almost standing either side of her so that she had nowhere to move. So I've said "what are you doing?"  and they didn't reply and started walking away. 

'She was crying and I was like "come on, come on, come with me and I'll take you downstairs to where we were living"'.

Speaking in the documentary, her friend Becca said: 'My friend runs at me, towards me. She was hysterical - I've never seen anyone in that kind of state in my life. It was scary. She just collapsed on my bed and was just curled up.'

Jacob, who had been on the trip with her at the time, recalled how he arrived at the apartment and found the anonymous teenager, now 19, who has been given the name "Emily" in the documentary, surrounded by the gang

Speaking in the documentary about the moment she returned to their apartment, her friend Becca said: 'My friend runs at me, towards me. She was hysterical - I've never seen anyone in that kind of state in my life. It was scary. She just collapsed on my bed and was just curled up.

'I just grabbed her and was hugging her and was like "Just tell me what's wrong, what's happened, I can help you, just tell me what happened - did he hurt you?".'

'She was like "yeah and she said "yes but not just him", and that's when I put it together and was like "did they rape you", and she said "yes".'

ITV's Believe Me is the 19-year-old's first television interview since the ordeal. 

She said that police had forced her to retract her statement, explaining: 'There was no other way out of that police station other than [to] sign that retraction statement.

'I thought, "As soon as I am outside this volatile environment I can sort this out."

'When you're in that situation, the only sensible thing to do is to conform.'

The documentary features her barrister, Lewis Powers, who slams police failings as a 'disgraceful miscarriage of justice'.

Her defence lawyer at trial, Nicoletta Charalambidou, also adds that the island has a culture of not believing women's claims of rape.

She says: 'I do not understand why it's easier to believe that a woman was not raped, rather than believing she was raped.

'Because if you wanted to believe her… All the evidence was there to conclude that there was rape.'

Emily, who is now back in the UK and set to appeal against her conviction, vowed: 'I will achieve justice.'

The Cyprus police have said their investigation was handled with professionalism and they deny improper conduct.

The woman recently told the Sun how she went to Cyprus to work and holiday but ended up suffering an ordeal. 

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told how she was raped after striking up a 'normal holiday romance' with a young Israeli.

The bedroom where the teenager says she endured the gang rape ordeal in Ayia Napa, Cyprus 

Shimon Yusufov, 19, has been named as the Israeli who met the British student, also 19, while on holiday in Cyprus last July

The Israeli youths are greeted with hugs after being released from police custody 

She recalled how they went back to his hotel room in the early hours of the morning.

She said: 'I knew he was leaving the next day so we started kissing. About five minutes later, I heard the sound of the room door opening and turned around.

'He grabbed me and threw me on the bed. He pinned my shoulders down by kneeling on them — he was well-built, strong — I couldn't move. From under his knees, I turned and saw the light growing from the doorway.'

The 12 other attackers entered the room, she said: 'Some of them grabbed my ankles, some held down my knees and they ripped my bodysuit.

'I was trying to cross my legs all the time and every time I did, Sam would get angry. He grabbed one of my knees himself at one point. Then they took it in turns.'

She says she was forced to sign a confession saying she made up the attack that was dictated to her by a male police officer.

However, the teenager still had faith that a judge would recognise that the statement was written under extreme pressure.

Instead she was put through another six-month ordeal, first being put in prison where she lost two-and-a-half stone in weight, then being under house arrest.

After five weeks behind bars she was granted bail but her family had to raise 20,000 euros to secure her release. 

The teenager has now filed an appeal to try and get her conviction overturned. Her dreams of becoming an anti-terror police officer, having got into university to study criminology, have been shattered by the post-traumatic stress disorder she suffers from. 

Believe Me: The Cyprus Rape Case is available on the ITV Hub