In another example of Israel's ethically challenged legal system, a synagogue gabbai who fled prosecution for the repeated rapes of a developmentally disabled child gets a short prison sentence on his return to Israel.
Yehezkiel Greenbaum, a 41-year-old Jerusalem synagogue gabbai, was convicted in a plea bargain today to charges of sodomy and indecent assault against a 14 -year-old boy with low mental function and personality disorders, Ynet's Hebrew website reported.
Greenbaum fled the country in 2010 just before he was to slated to sign the agreement. When he recently returned to Israel, he was able to get some of the related charges dropped or altered, which reduced his sentence.
But Greenbaum also tried to claim that he had not forced the boys, a claim the judges rejected because of the boys' mental states.
"The age gap and the close relations between the defendant and the complainant, as well as cognitive and emotional state [of the complainant], made the complainant easy prey for the defendant," the judges said.
Greenbaum was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
The victim was so traumatized by the ongoing sexual abuse that he needed psychiatric hospitalization.