Sexual assault victim (stock image)
Sexual assault victim (stock image)i-Stock

An indictment filed in Be’er Sheva’s youth court alleges that a 17-year-old youth, a resident of the Negev, broke into a house, lay down next to a 10-year-old girl and licked her face. The girl asked him to leave, but he refused to do so and sexually assaulted her. The prosecution accuses him of burglary, theft, sodomy and an indecent act against a minor under the age of 16 without her free consent.

According to the indictment, filed by Attorney Ira Weiman Cricon of the Southern District Attorney's Office, the youth arrived with two others, one of them 16, at the community where the girl lives. The defendant and the other youth searched for valuables in the living room of the house, and after finding car keys, they left the house and searched for valuables in the car as well.

After finding nothing, the two returned to the house and continued their search. At one point the defendant entered the room where the victim and her younger brother were sleeping at the time. So the defendant lay down next to her. The girl asked the defendant to explain his actions and asked him to leave; the youth sexually assaulted her.

After the girl shouted for her father, the defendant and the other youth fled the house with about 50 shekels and various toys. They threw away the toys and fled in the vehicle where an adult partner was waiting for them.

The prosecution asked the court to extend the youth's detention until the case was concluded. The request stated that the defendant and his two accomplices were simultaneously indicted by the police prosecutor for numerous property offenses.

On the background of the indictment, the girl's father said this morning in an interview with Ynet that “This was a traumatic incident that will need a lengthy recovery. People here should be shocked, but they aren’t. Everyone has a mask these days - a call to the police gets nothing but an apology.”

The father further said: "I did not shoot them, but only because they were not technically threatening my life or hers. They were in my house, assaulting my daughter, though. What am I supposed to do, detain them for interrogation? I'm sorry I did not shoot. What will they get now? The courts are not doing anything. He has a Jewish lawyer, who is even more disgraceful, who protects him. I do not understand how a person dares to defend these degenerates. Next I’ll hear a judge say 'he's a minor', like they do in terrorist attacks. I don’t buy that anymore - this was an attack on my precious family."

"We are not thinking of leaving the Negev. We belong here. We are a strong, loving family, we have support from all over the country. People help and it is very heartwarming. We will overcome our personal ordeal, but not the outrage that we need hundreds of armed guards to defeat a single teen in a mask who came to steal thousands of rounds of ammunition from an army base.

The father added: "These people are organized and trained for everything. It's like Hamas and Hezbollah. We need to take action against them, not because they are Bedouin or Arab but because they are committing crimes.”

"My daughter is obviously not the last victim. If there is no substantial change here, burglars will continue to assault us without blinking an eye. I should not have to explain my actions. I live here - why should I have to provide justification for attacking someone invading my house? Had the laws not protected him, as they do now, I have no doubt I would have shot him.”