A 20-year-old man will remain in police custody in the north for three days as authorities investigate allegations that he sexually abused a 14-year-old child in Nicosia, according to Turkish Cypriot media reports on Sunday.

The suspect, a Turkmenistan national, appeared before a court after being arrested on charges of sexual assault of a child under sixteen.

A police officer informed the court that the alleged incident took place sometime in 2025 at an empty construction site at a school in Nicosia.

Police became aware of the allegations yesterday after the child’s mother discovered screenshots of WhatsApp conversations involving her daughter on a cloud storage application connected to their shared email account.

The suspect’s phone and the child’s phone were seized as part of the investigation and are to be examined by police.

Authorities also said the suspect had provided a voluntary statement in which he admitted to the allegations, but that the statement would need to be verified and supported by further evidence.

The child is also expected to undergo a medical examination.

Speaking in court, the suspect claimed that the child had been his girlfriend and expressed remorse.

The court ordered the suspect to be remanded for three days to allow the investigation to proceed.