Four British tourists ‘attacked by rapist surf instructor in Costa Rica’

Four British tourists were attacked by a suspected serial rapist while on holiday at a paradisiacal resort in Costa Rica, a court heard.

28-year-old Cristopher Andres Picado Ramírez is said to have attacked the four Britons as well as a woman from Argentina and two minors from Costa Rica.

The surf instructor is accused of forcing himself on women at several locations in the holiday resort of Santa Teresa on the west coast of Costa Rica, reported the newspaper “The Sun”.

According to local media, he is said to have abused several women in the toilet of a bar in Santa Teresa.

Further attacks are said to have taken place at parties on farms near the city’s beach.

The alleged victims are between 18 and 24 years old, and the attacks are said to have taken place between 2019 and 2022.

In another case of an attack on a foreigner, DNA analysis is still pending, local media reported.

Picado Ramírez was arrested in April 2022 after the four British tourists filed a complaint with the Costa Rican police.

However, the judges granted him bail, which was criticized by activists in Costa Rica.

As The Sun reported, the British women did not appear at a two-day court hearing at the end of April, but are said to have testified from the Costa Rican consulate in London.

The trial was scheduled to end last week but stalled after Picado Ramírez introduced one of his alleged victims as a defense witness.

Walter Brenes, the lawyer for three of the victims, told the Sun he was “completely baffled”: “In a hypothetical defense on my part, I would not offer a victim as evidence because I know that the victim is still a victim.”

The process is expected to be completed next week.