The prosecution reached a plea agreement with the 16-year-old boy from Tel Aviv, who was charged last December, at the age of 15, with five counts of raping a minor, four counts of indecent assault on a minor and one attempted rape.
The settlement will be presented tomorrow in the Tel Aviv District Court.
In the plea deal the charges against him will be reduced, and he will be charged with two counts of rape, attempted rape and four counts of indecent acts.
As will be recalled some of the offenses were committed in the complainants with whom he had an intimate relationship and in some cases after meeting them in social circumstances and without prior acquaintance from the age of 13 until his arrest.
Defense counsel for the boy suspected of sexual offenses in schools in Tel Aviv // Archive photo: Avi Cohen
The original indictment states that the sexual offenses occurred in violation of the minors' consent, and without the defendant bothering to find out their consent and sometimes even despite their opposition.
In the request for arrest, the prosecution stated at the time that "the defendant harmed the souls of minors, trampled on their will and dignity, and treated them as if they were an object ... The respondent adapted a pattern of sexual aggression towards minors
The acts themselves began at one school where the boy studied in south Tel Aviv and then he moved to a high school in north Tel Aviv but most of the victims did not study with him at the school, but got to know him in social gatherings.
At first the boy was in custody and then moved to a closed home, where he remains to this day.
Tomorrow, as stated, the plea agreement will be presented in court without consent to the sentence, but only to the fact that the boy's parents will compensate each of the six complainants with NIS 20,000.
Attorney Orit Hayun, representing one of the complainants in the case, responded: "I think the plea agreement that attributes to him two cases of rape is very lenient with the defendant. If the court had heard the girls' testimony, he would probably have sent him to long years in prison. Due to the young age of the complainants, the fact that they will not be forced to testify while the accused takes responsibility and admits to committing serious offenses, constitutes a proper balance.
"As part of the settlement, the court allowed the complainant girls and their parents to be present during the hearing tomorrow during the defendant's confession even though it is a closed-door hearing, so that they can close a circle and refute the ugly allegations made by the defendant and his family that it was a false plot."
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