9.5 years sentenced to abusive kindergarten teacher Carmel Meuda • Father: It's not enough

July 8, 2021   

The Lod District Court today (Thursday) sentenced Carmel Meuda to nine and a half years in prison and 400,000 shekels in compensation to the families of the victims. Want to know how I became a manager with a bombshell salary without leaving home? Worried about your children? This is what top doctors recommend doing now Here you will receive clear information: Have you returned from abroad? Have you been near a sick person? Do you want to travel? This is the highest prison sentence given in the country for child abuse. 28-year-old Mauda, ​​who ran a daycare center in Rosh HaAyin, was convicted of 35 cases of abuse and assault of toddlers aged three months to three years at the daycare center she owned in Rosh HaAyin. Mauda arrived in court accompanied by her father and surrounded by police officers separating her from those present. Outside the court, the toddlers' parents and other activists demonstrated in protest. Yossi Hevra, father of one of the children in the daycare, said after the sentencing: "9 years in prison is not enough, but we are satisfied that there has not been such a punishment against a caregiver in the country, and therefore there is something to aspire to." Mauda was convicted last December of child abuse. At the end of the sentencing phase in April, Meuda took the witness stand and apologized to the children and parents: "I am ashamed of everything I did, ashamed of myself. I live it every day. It is something I experience day and night, I will keep it for the rest of my life.".

In response to the sentence, the Central District Attorney's Office said: "The sentence imposed today on Carmel Meuda is another step in the Attorney General's fight to increase punishment in cases of abuse and assault on helpless people by a responsible person.

""This is an exceptional case in its severity, and the honorable court treated it as such. We hope that the sentence imposed by the court today on the defendant will serve as a warning sign to anyone who intends to harm the physical and mental integrity of toddlers and helpless children.".

 The case was handled by Attorney Iris Picker Segal of the Central District Attorney's Office (Criminal).

Attorney Shiran Bergman, who represents the 'abusive kindergarten teacher' on behalf of the public defender's office, responded to the verdict: "Despite the fact that the prison sentence imposed on Carmel is far from the sentence the state requested, the sentence imposed is still a severe sentence. The court, in its verdict, also gave weight, although insufficiently in our opinion, to the brutal public trial that Carmel and her family endured.".