On video: a young man from Be'er Sheva was convicted of sexual offenses against children - the parents burst into tears (Yoav Itayel)
The district court in Haifa today (Thursday) sentenced 26-year-old Rotem Azaria to 15 years in prison, after he was convicted of sexual offenses against children.
Azaria was convicted of sodomy and many indecent acts towards children aged 8-10, and was acquitted of other sodomy acts he was accused of.
In addition, a compensation of NIS 129,000 was determined for each of the two minors.
In reading the sentence, Judge Avi Levy said that Azaria's actions were "harsh and serious, and the image of the minors is scorched in our eyes. The actions caused enormous damage to the minors."
The parents burst into tears while the judge detailed the places where the acts took place, where Azaria would take the minors in their innocence, where he sexually assaulted them.
According to the indictment, between 2015 and 2019, while Azaria was near the children, and sometimes while he was alone with them, he committed serious sexual acts on them during which he gave the children his mobile phone to play with and also promised and gave them small sums of money.
Rotem Azaria (photo: official website, investigation file)
In June 2020, Rotem Azaria moved from Manhariya to live in the south of the country.
He worked in kindergartens during national service, and then, in April 2021, an indictment was filed against him for committing sexual offenses against a child who lived near him.
According to this indictment, he took advantage of several occasions when he was alone with the child, and committed sodomy, indecent acts and other offenses.
After the boy refused to stay with him, he revealed the events to his family.
The indictment indicates that during the investigation, many obscene materials were seized on Azaria's mobile phones.
In the files he had, among other things, sexual videos of children with adults were found.
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