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Last update - 18:57 09/05/2009
U.S. rabbi gets 30 years for molesting his daughter
By The Associated Press
Tags: New York, Israel news 

A New York rabbi convicted of molesting his daughter has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Monsey rabbi Israel Weingarten was found guilty in March of abusing his daughter throughout much of her childhood.

The trial was traumatic for his victim, now 27. Weingarten acted as his own attorney and put his daughter through a grueling cross examination.
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Federal Judge John Gleeson told Weingarten on Friday that his behavior during the trial had made his crime even worse, saying "You seemed to enjoy yourself in a perverse sort of way."

The judge said he would never forget the woman's pain.

Weingarten told the court that he did not want to represent himself in the trial, but felt that he had no other choice after he found the two attorneys appointed to him by the court unsatisfactory.

The jury convicted him on all five counts, according to which he had transported his daughter outside of the country when he traveled for business in 1997, in order to commit sexual crimes against her.

The judge sentenced Weingarten to 10 years in prison for each count, and an additional 3 years probation at the conclusion of his prison term. However, he will be serving two of the 10-year sentences concurrently, and therefore be released in 30 years.

At the beginning of the sentencing hearing, the victim and her older brother, 29, read aloud the details of the crimes the defendant had committed against his daughter. They argued that their father had brainwashed their mother and younger siblings.

The victim is Weingarten's second child, out of a total of eight children. The six younger children all support their father. Two of his daughters, aged 20 and 23, even testified on their father's behalf during the trial, and claimed that it had been their mother who abused the victim, their sister.

After the sentencing, one of the daughters declared that they would be filing an appeal.

Related articles:
  • N.Y. to battle sexual abuse among ultra-Orthodox Jews
  • Rabbi charged with repeated sexual assault
  • Social worker: Most ultra-Orthodox children who were sexually abused not treated
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      1.   A total discrace 19:59  |  SJ 09/05/09
      2.   Thoroughly disgusting and reponse to # 1 22:30  |  David Rosenberg 09/05/09
      3.   Not Enough.He has ruined the prospects of his whole family. 07:16  |  PETER SM 10/05/09
      4.   Everyone calls himself a rabbi 07:41  |  judith 10/05/09
      5.   Scumbag 17:32  |  J. West 10/05/09
      6.   Suprised? ..not 14:05  |  Avham 11/05/09
      7.   #6 Avham 00:46  |  Masha 23/05/09
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