Daniel "Gug" Hayman sat in court reading his siddur while his victim's impact statement was read. The victim said that his biggest loss and greatest disappointment was the response from the Chabad community. “Sadly, I have discovered that, when the offender is one of your own, the response is different to if the offender was one of 'them'.” He said that his own adopted family urged him not to contact the police about his abuse, and that his adoptive family approached many of his friends and sought to have him cast out of the community for reporting the assault to police.
Above: Daniel "Gug" Hayman
The Australian Jewish News describes the scene in a Sydney courtroom this week as the victim of admitted Chabad pedophile Daniel "Gug" Hayman gave his victim's impact statement. Hayman, who served on Chabad's board of directors in Sydney, sexually assaulted the victim at a Chabad summer camp:
…Hayman sat in court reading his siddur while the victim impact statement was read.
The victim said that his biggest loss and greatest disappointment was the response from the community. “Sadly, I have discovered that, when the offender is one of your own [Jewish] the response is different to if the offender was one of them.”
He said that his own adopted family urged him not to contact the police about his abuse, and that his adoptive family actively went and approached many of his friends and sought to have him cast out of the community.
He said families will no longer invite him to their homes, his children are no longer invited to birthday parties and some adults ignore him.
“I wanted to feel loved, accepted and embraced by my family and community, despite what had happened to me against my will.
“Instead I got largely, and publicly, the opposite.”
He also told the court that every day when he returns from shul, his wife asks if anything happened.
“It emerges because of the bullying, intimidation and harassment that we feel we have continually experienced at synagogue,” he said.