The Jerusalem District Court has sentenced a young man to seven years in prison for seriously harming two boys, aged 6 and 7, in two separate incidents in Jerusalem in 2023. The man admitted to the charges and was convicted.
The panel of judges also ordered him to pay compensation of NIS 20,000 and NIS 60,000 to the two victims and imposed a suspended sentence.
According to the amended indictment, the defendant was about 20 years old at the time. In June 2023, he approached a 7-year-old boy on a Jerusalem street, lured him with an offer of money and led him to a construction site hidden from passersby, where he harmed him. When the boy began crying and screaming, the defendant threatened to beat him if he told anyone, and then fled.
In November of the same year, he approached a 6-year-old boy near a residential building. He led the child to a secluded spot and then into a nearby structure, where he committed serious acts against him and told him not to tell anyone.
In their ruling, the judges stressed the severity of the acts and the exploitation of the young children's innocence in a public space. They noted that the harm did not end with the incidents themselves but was accompanied by threats meant to keep the boys silent. Victim impact reports submitted to the court found that both children suffer from serious emotional and behavioral effects and need close supervision and emotional therapy.
During the sentencing arguments, the State Attorney's Office asked for 12 years in prison. The defense asked the court to avoid prison altogether and place the defendant in a therapeutic hostel instead. It cited his young age, his lack of a criminal record, and the fact that his confession spared the children from having to testify. The defense also pointed to professional opinions warning that his mental state could deteriorate behind bars.
The judges refused to depart from the sentencing guidelines on rehabilitation grounds, writing that "the word rehabilitation is not a magic word." They adopted the position of the Probation Service that the private treatment the defendant had begun was not enough to reduce the danger he poses.
The court did take into account his age, his confession and his expression of remorse, and set the sentence near the bottom of the applicable range. He will serve seven years minus the time already spent in detention, with the option of joining a dedicated treatment program in prison.
