The Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court on Tuesday sentenced Haim Peleg to 40 months in prison, 12 months suspended sentence and compensation of NIS 50,000 to the complainant, after he was convicted last month of committing sexual offenses against a minor with intellectual disabilities when she was only 15 years old.
Peleg was convicted of offenses of forbidden cause of consent, causing prohibited cause of consent and possession of obscene material. The offenses were committed against a minor girl born in 2002, when she was only 15 years old. Peleg had intense correspondence with the minor girl with sexual content, knowing her age. Later, he met the minor near her school and drove her in his car to a remote location, where he had her with her consent.
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At the sentencing stage, the state emphasized the significant age gap between the defendant and the minor, which stands at 35 years, the young age of the minor at the time of the offenses, and the serious circumstances of the conduct of the defendant, who initiated the sexual relationship, planned and carried out the encounter and the sexual intercourse, even though he knew her age.
In his ruling, Judge Kornhauser noted that: "For years since the commission of the offenses, the defendant has not undergone any attempt to examine the background that led to the commission of the despicable acts for which he was convicted, whether therapeutic or otherwise, and did not indicate the beginning of internalization or understanding of the wrongdoing of his actions." The judge added that "during the course of conducting this proceeding, the court was exposed to the extent of the deep harm to the minor as a result of the defendant's actions, to the deep fracture that opened in her psyche without healing, to the point of repeated suicidal attempts in a closed ward."
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