Last update - 00:00 06/11/2007
Man indicted for molesting evacuee children during Lebanon war
By Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz Correspondent
The Haifa district court sentenced Aharon Yehuda, 28, to three years in prison after he was convicted of molesting three children at a youth village during the Second Lebanon War last summer.
The children had been evacuated from their homes in the Galilee to the Meir Shfeya youth village near Zichron Ya'akov following Hezbollah's rocket attacks on the north.
According to the indictment, Yehuda, a resident of Kiryat Shmona, was also staying at the youth village during the war. During his stay, he sexually assaulted two boys, aged 6 and 12, as well as an 11-year-old girl.
The assaults all took place inside the youth village, mostly in the vicinity of the chicken coop, the barn and the pool.
In the indictment, the judges said that while this was clearly not an isolated incident one must take into account that the accused confessed immediately and has no prior convictions.