Cypriot woman honoured for decades tackling child exploitation: ‘Believe your children’

Local britainchild abusechildreneducationsexual abuseTop News Cypriot woman honoured for decades tackling child exploitation: ‘Believe your children’ 40704386 Ea6d 4285 90e7 7b10179a36b5 Relevant News Cypriot woman honoured for decades tackling child exploitation: ‘Believe your children’ 16 September 2026 Things to do on Wednesday, September 16 16 September 2026 Unsettled weather expected on Wednesday as temperatures set to drop 16 September 2026 Sophia Neophitou 16 September 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber Andri Nicolaou moved from Cyprus to Britain in 2003. Twenty-three years later, she is receiving a British Empire Medal (BEM) for her work preventing and tackling the exploitation of minors. She first moved to Bristol in the early 2000s to be with her husband, she told en.philenews. While settling in the UK she visited an agency and asked, ‘Is there anything for me to do?’. The agency provided Andri with a job for three weeks, on the child abuse investigation team at police headquarters, adding that her army background was a plus. Andri started out typing child abuse referrals into the system. She told en.philenews that her employers thought she “had the stomach for it” because of her time in the army. “I went, and I never left. Twenty-three years later.” Her role in the Cypriot army, where she held the rank of sergeant, was nothing like the world she now works in. But though the job was completely different, she said she loved it just the same. Over the years, Andri became more involved with the cases. She started as a clerical officer before eventually telling the team she didn’t just want to answer phones, she wanted to get involved. “So, I started getting involved, going out with the detectives.” A child died in Britain a few years later, leading to the creation of “Every Child Matters” officer roles. Her sergeant at the time said she would be an excellent fit for the job but had to get special permission, since she wasn’t a police officer. Andri became the first non-police “Every Child Matters” officer in Britain. She loved the job, working on missing children’s cases and building trust with minors. She said not being a police officer actually helped, as children found her more approachable than they did the police. Her role shifted again, and she found herself representing the police at case conferences on the care of children, alongside family, social workers and other professionals. Before each meeting, she would research the parents, checking for any criminal offences or intelligence against them, and present her findings. Though she enjoyed the work, Andri said the responsibilities were often very challenging; she researched parents who were murderers, sex offenders, “everything.” After the Rochdale exploitation case came to light, Andri began working on the Home Office Innovation Fund project for seven local authorities. When that work finished, she moved into her current position in 2016. From there, Andri developed her own focus: exploitation, grooming and prevention, with an emphasis on education. She started visiting children’s homes to show her face and build trusting relationships with children before predators could get there first, and later began going into schools too. She now also works with A&E doctors, training them to recognise the signs of knife crime and children in danger, as well as with taxi drivers and hoteliers, running her own covert operations with hotels to prevent rapes. Andri’s talks differ depending on who she’s speaking to. At primary schools, with younger children, she doesn’t lead the conversation, she lets the children guide it instead. She asks them questions about the internet, building towards whether they think anything could go wrong online. The first response, she said, is usually about inappropriate content. She’s noticed how bullying has changed: children can no longer escape it by going home, since offenders can reach them online too. She’s also struck by how differently children respond to “stranger danger” online versus in the real world. They understand they shouldn’t speak to strangers in person, she said, but nearly all admit to talking and gaming with strangers online. The most popular online game among children aged 7 to 9, she’s found, is Grand Theft Auto; some even play it with their parents. Her message isn’t complete isolation from the online world, but making children aware of its dangers. Banning only makes things worse, she said, because when the next incident happens, the child will be too afraid to speak up. “If a child gets beaten up in the park, we don’t beat them up when they come home, we put our arms around them, comfort them, find solutions. We don’t do that for online incidents, because we panic.” She’s also noticed older minors moving away from social media and drinking; in Bristol, she said, non-alcoholic pubs are even opening for those who’d rather not drink. Andri also gives talks at colleges and universities across Britain, particularly to criminology and psychology students, and trains psychotherapists and new detectives on these issues. She said she’d love to do something similar in Cyprus, but it would be difficult given the contrasting systems, and the fact that she isn’t legally a police officer there either. Andri recently started holding conferences for exploited youths, speaking to a hundred girls at police headquarters in March. The risk assessment was difficult, she said, but the outcome was a success. She spoke to the girls about sexual awareness, including strangulation during sexual acts, which she said many young people mistakenly believe is a normal part of sex. She also talked to them about keeping sexual experiences safe and had a survivor of sexual abuse speak to the group. Andri plans to host a similar conference in December, for two hundred 10 to 11-year-olds. The number of groomed and exploited children has risen over the years, she said. She’s even seen cases involving narcotics in children as young as six; perpetrators know that if a child is caught by police with drugs, and those drugs are confiscated, they can exploit the child further by putting them into “debt” and forcing them to work more. “That’s why parents need to be very careful and believe their kids. I say that to everybody: believe your children. Why would a child lie about someone abusing them?” Andri once visited a school to speak about sexual consent to eleven-year-olds, after the school reported issues with sexual harassment between pupils. She began with everyday questions about consent, like “Can I use your phone?”, before gradually moving on to sexual consent. When the talk ended, a girl came to her with a friend and disclosed that she had been raped by her brother, only realising it after hearing Andri’s talk. After receiving disclosures like this, Andri said she works to get victims in touch with the right authorities once trust has been built. She gave another example: a girl who reached out three months after a conference to disclose she had been assaulted, saying she had only realised what happened to her after Andri’s talk. Andri and a detective who had also attended the conference went to see the girl, who was relieved to speak to people she already knew. Andri received a letter informing her she would receive a BEM a couple of months before the award was officially announced. She only told her husband, and found out it had been made public while patrolling a park in Bristol known for drug dealing. She is now waiting to hear when the Lord Lieutenant will present her medal in Bristol. After that, she’ll be invited to a garden party at the palace, where she’ll be greeted either by King Charles and Queen Camilla, or by Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales. Andri said she never expected so much attention until people started reaching out to her. “I mean, it’s lovely, isn’t it? I’m not going to lie, I was shocked. I’m still in shock. It’s like, ‘No, they’re going to take it back, it’s a mistake’; but apparently it’s not. I’m very proud.” She added that she is entirely Cypriot and doesn’t yet hold British nationality. “I’m very proud,” she repeated, saying she was happy to be representing Cypriots. Alongside her day job, Andri is heavily involved with the Greek community in Bristol. She has chaired the Greek school there for the past twelve years and also leads on safeguarding. She is set to meet with Maria Louis, the Cyprus Education Mission representative, to give a conference on safeguarding. Andri recommends internetmatters.org and iwf.org.uk as useful resources on child exploitation, offering simple guides on prevention and response. She is hosting two free online sessions over the coming months, on 29 September and 6 October, open globally and joinable by QR code. 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