Police arrested a fourth daycare worker on Thursday evening in the widening child abuse investigation in Ashkelon. The arrest came hours after the city's Magistrate's Court extended the remand of three staff members by five days. The three are suspected of severe violence against toddlers aged eight months to three years at two private daycare centers in the city.
According to a Ynet report cited by Kikar HaShabbat, the fourth suspect was detained on suspicion of abusing helpless persons following new findings that emerged as the investigation progressed. The director of the daycare centers, who was arrested with the others on Wednesday, was released to house arrest under restrictive conditions at the end of Thursday's hearing. Another daycare worker who had been detained and questioned was released earlier at the police station.
The case began about a week ago, when a parent whose child attends one of the daycares filed a police complaint. Investigators then collected and seized footage from security cameras installed inside the facilities, which led to Wednesday's arrests. Ashkelon police said those arrested were a teacher and four aides, all Ashkelon residents, who worked at two daycares under the same management.
At Thursday's hearing, held a day after police made the arrests and announced the investigation, the judge asked the police representative about the nature of the alleged violence. The representative told the court that an analysis of the footage pointed to heavy suspicion of severe violence against the children. She said one suspect had been shown a video from the daycare during questioning and had clearly identified herself in it.
The judge spoke in unusually sharp terms about the scope and severity of the footage. Referring to one suspect, who admitted under questioning that her conduct had been improper, the judge said the recordings showed acts sufficient to justify four further remand extensions. She asked whether the suspect had any explanation for her actions.
A second suspect currently denies the allegations. The judge noted that investigators hold "thousands of videos" and said the footage speaks for itself, despite the suspect's attempt to minimize her role. The third suspect had been questioned twice, before and after her arrest. The judge said that although the full scope of her actions has not yet been established, there is a solid basis for the suspicion and she poses a very high level of danger. She added that the case was branching out by the moment.
Describing some of the footage, the judge said one clip shows a teacher grabbing, slamming and hitting children. She said these were babies who went to daycare in the morning and came home with bruises.
