It's simple arse covering - if the bag was damaged when it arrived in Paphos, the flight dispatcher there would have been notified by the slovenly herberts who unloaded it.
At the Gatwick end, the loaders would have notified the flight dispatcher who in turn would have told the passenger prior to departure.
Ergo, it fell off the baggage cart at Paphos and probably got run over. So they just chucked it on the reclaim belt...
