There are four cases of rape for which the man - famous actor and theater director - is charged.

The four plaintiffs are all men and three of them must have been minors when the abuse took place.

The indictment against the theater director, who resigned from his position as artistic director at the Greek National Theater when the charges against him became known, is only one in a series of indictments that are expected and that all sprang from the Greek Metoo wave.

She broke the taboo

It was in a video interview on the fashion online edition of the fashion magazine Marieclair published in January 2021 that one of Greece's most successful female athletes - Sofia Bekatorou - for the first time broke the taboo on talking publicly about sexual abuse in elite sports in Greece.

- At first I did not understand how big the problem of sexual abuse and harassment was in sports but thought that what happened to me was an exception but when I understood that other children and young people were at risk of being exposed, I decided to report my perpetrator and go public with my story, says Sofia Bekatorou.

The accusations made by Bekatorou against a former coach, high-ranking in the Greek Sailing Federation, were investigated by prosecutors but never led to prosecution as the abuse would have taken place as early as 1998 and thus expired.

But what followed after Marieclaire's publication of the interview with Sofia Bekatorou was a wave of testimonies of sexual abuse in the sports and cultural world in Greece.

Shortly afterwards, in February 2021, the Greek government launched the website metodogreece.gr to raise awareness about sexual abuse, as well as to collect testimonies.

At the same time, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis presented a proposal for stricter legislation on sexual offenses.

- I would never have thought that it would be so big and there have been changes in the legal system, for example, but we must continue to work to reduce the guilt of the victims and put the responsibility where it belongs, with the perpetrators, says Sofia Bekatorou.

"There were reports many years ago"

What came to be known as Greece's first Metoo indictment came in January this year when a 39-year-old coach was brought to justice for a ten-year-old rape of a then eleven-year-old girl and more charges are expected against prominent actors and media profiles.

At the same time, a current investigation into rape - where a 24-year-old woman accuses several young, rich men of having drugged and later raped her during a New Year's party - has further fueled the public debate about Metoo in Greece.

- Before Metoo, this could never have happened, the victims had never been listened to and this is noticeable as an example in the current case, where there were reports against the theater director many years ago, says Sofia Bekatorou.

The trial of the 57-year-old theater director will resume at the end of February at the request of the defendant's lawyer.