The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court this week sentenced a criminal to three years in prison for several times violating orders prohibiting him from approaching schools, playgrounds and other places - and from contacting minors. The Jerusalem District Attorney's Office announced this today (Wednesday).
The man, Hezekiah Kahalani from the Jerusalem area, was also convicted of assault.
The defendant was convicted of seven violations of a supervision order and one offense of assault. The court found, after hearing the testimonies of the minors, that all of the offenses were committed in a short period of time, in the same town, against a group of several girls aged 9-11, all of whom were in social contact with each other.
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Furthermore, the violations are all similar to each other, and in all of them the defendant approached the girls, tried to strike up a conversation with them and offered them candy (except in one case), and in three cases he offered the girls that he would carry them on his shoulders. In one case the defendant grabbed the hand of the girl with whom he tried to strike up a conversation.
The court ruled that it would compensate each of the girls with 3,000 shekels.
Kahalani was previously convicted of four different indictments for serious offenses, including three involving minors, starting in 1993.
In 2011, Kahalani, who operated in the Mea Shearim area, was convicted of committing particularly serious acts against minors aged 10-12, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The events for which he was convicted this week occurred just a few months after his release.
In the sentence, Judge Yaron Mintakevich of the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court wrote: "A supervision order that the defendant does not strictly comply with in its entirety is not worth the paper it is written on. Therefore, it must be made clear to every convicted offender that the order is not a recommendation or a request.".
In addition, the judge criticized the Prison Service and added in the sentence: "A released offender, on whom a supervision order has been imposed, should be under the supervision of the Prison Service. This is especially true of a repeat offender, who was released a short time earlier from a long prison sentence for serious offenses.".
The judge also said: "Thanks to the resourcefulness of the mother of one of them, he was arrested. It could have been expected that supervision of the defendant would be more effective.".
The lawyer who handled the case, Bracha Ben Aderet-Zerakhia of the Jerusalem District Attorney's Office: "The sentence illustrates the seriousness of violations of supervision orders, which were intended to monitor an offender so that he does not commit further offenses. In this case, the defendant is highly dangerous and his actions constitute a serious violation of the order. These circumstances justified imposing a long prison sentence to keep him away from minors.".
