Gavel (illustration)
Gavel (illustration)iStock

A 20-year-old man from the Samaria town of Karnei Shomron was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison Thursday for an arson targeting the home of a Rosh Ha’ayin woman arrested for abusing children at her daycare center.

The Central District Court approved Thursday a plea bargain arrangement between prosecutors and Adir Ratzon, giving Ratzon a 42-month jail sentence after he confessed to setting fire to the home of Carmel Mauda in 2019.

Ratzon will also be required to pay 50,000 shekels ($14,600) to the Mauda family for the damages caused by the arson.

Mauda, 26, was arrested last year and charged with abusing 11 infants and toddlers at the Baby Love daycare center, which she operated.

According to investigators, the abuses included covering the children's heads with a blanket and sitting on them to prevent movement; tying a minor’s hands using string for minutes to hours; picking up minors by forcefully grasping the arm; swinging them in the air and throwing them onto the floor; shaking babies; placing toddlers facing the wall, sometimes for several hours; whipping the minors with a diaper, slapping them, pinching and pulling toddlers' heads back, blocking their noses and mouths until breathing difficulties arose. In one case she forced a minor to eat the contents of a plate into which he vomited.