A haredi man, Menachem Mendel Levy, 40, is on trial in London on eight
counts of child sexual abuse, rape and sexual assault of a young woman.
Three of those charges are for indecent assault against the woman when
she was a minor.
Haredi Man On Trial For Child Sex Abuse, Rape, Sexual Assault
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
The (London) Jewish Chronicle reports that a haredi man, Menachem Mendel Levy, 40, is on trial in London on eight counts of child sexual abuse, rape and sexual assault of a young woman. Three of those charges are for indecent assault against the woman when she was a minor.
The abuse allegedly started when the girl was 14 and continued until she was 21. The abuse allegedly started with touching and fondling and escalated until it involved rape.
The victim “did not complain during that period, because in essence she thought she was to blame. This was a belief and conviction rooted in her upbringing in north London and the Orthodox Jewish community,” the prosecutor reportedly said. Levy exploited her naivety and fears, he said, telling the woman that she would be the one in trouble if she told anyone in the community or called police.
The prosecutor noted that Levy’s defense would claim that after the girl turned 16, and following Levy’s marriage to someone else, Levy “had consensual sexual intercourse with her on a number of occasions. He will deny any sexual contact with her before she was 16, but will say that he and she had an affair after she turned 16.”
But, the prosecutor said, the truth is far different than that.
The victim resisted his sexual overtures on some occasions. But on other occasions she submitted “with a sense of powerlessness.” But she never consented.
It was only later, when she was overseas and saw a TV program about sexual abuse, that she understood the magnitude of what happened to her, the prosecutor reportedly said. When she came back home to Britain in 2006, she told her parents. Some time after that she told rabbis in her community.
Two years ago, the alleged victim sent a letter to Levy that detailed the pain his actions had caused her. In part, it reportedly reads,
“You smouldered and suffocated my soul… stole my education… and virginity. You now question what you can do to make it go away… It will never go away. I cannot buy the things you stole from me.”
The letter went on to suggest that he should apologize to her and reimburse her parents for the counseling and therapy she had undergone.
“If an apology had been forthcoming and resolution possible within the community, she would not have gone to the police,” the prosecutor said.
During videotaped questioning by police that was played to the jury, she said she had been used “like a utensil” by Levy and hated what happened.
At one point during the abuse, the alleged victim started cutting herself with a razor.
“[It was] the only way I could get rid of the pain building up inside me,” she said.
When asked why she had taken so long to call police, she replied that “in the religious Jewish world, you don’t call the police for anything unless someone is murdering someone or stealing.”
When she consulted haredi rabbis, “they basically told me there was nothing they could do; they didn’t know what to do. They all started coming up with their bull**** excuses.”
When repeatedly questioned by Levy’s attorney about why she had not told anyone about the abuse, the victim described herself as having been “very naive” in those days and said that “in hindsight, if I had known how wrong what he was doing really was, I would have said something.”
During cross-examination, she was repeatedly accused of lying, of destroying evidence and of fabricating the story by Levy’s attorney. To Jewish Chronicle reports that the woman’s most frequent response to those allegations was “No.”
The trial continues.
Update 11-1-2012 – Hung jury, mistrial, possible new trial in May 2013.