Hardcore Porn Made Him Do It, Claims Man Accused Of Raping, Murdering Scientist

A Greek man who authorities say confessed to the rape and murder of an American scientist reportedly told police that watching too much porn drove him to kill.

Police announced earlier this week that a 27-year-old married father of two had confessed to raping and killing 59-year-old Suzanne Eaton, a molecular biologist who’d traveled to the Greek island of Crete for a conference. Eaton disappeared while out for a run on July 2; her body was found on July 8, less than one week after she vanished, in a cave that was used by Nazis in World War II, local police told CNN.

Eaton’s killer has since been identified as Giannis Paraskakis, a sheep farmer who told police that he was led to rape and kill Eaton by watching too much hardcore pornography in an effort to liven up “his miserable life,” according to a leaked police testimony obtained by The Times. Paraskakis told police that murdering Eaton was an “act of despair,” the British newspaper reports.

Paraskakis, whose father is a priest, reportedly owns the land where the abandoned bunker where Eaton’s body was found is located. Police said that she was discovered with minor stab wounds and had been asphyxiated, according to CNN.

Paraskakis confessed to raping and killing Eaton, telling police that he saw her out for a run and “with sexual assault as a probable motive, hit her twice with his car in order to immobilize her,” Crete’s Chief of Police Konstantinos Lagoudakis said during a press conference Tuesday, CNN reports. He reportedly said he placed Eaton, who was then unconscious, into the trunk of his car and took her to the bunker, where he is alleged to have raped her before covering the air shaft with a wooden plank and leaving her behind.

Police claim Paraskakis then went to a nearby graveyard to clean his car of any evidence. However, police say that they were able to match car tracks near the bunker to Paraskakis’ vehicle, according to CNN. Cellphone records also place him near the area where Eaton was found on the day that she is alleged to have been raped and killed, police have said.

Paraskakis confessed to the crime after police brought him in for questioning, Maj. Gen. Constantinos Lagoudakis, director of Police General Directorate of Crete, said, according to ABC News.

Prosecutors have given Paraskakis, who is expected to be charged with murder, until Friday to add to his testimony, The Times reports.

Eaton, a research group leader with the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetic, is survived by her husband, British scientist Tony Hyman, and two sons. In a series of tributes posted online, her sister described her as an “accomplished woman” who possessed a “natural humility and insatiable curiosity.”