A man has been convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl at a state-run coronavirus quarantine hotel in Jaffa in 2021, it was announced on Friday.
In a plea deal this week, Yarin Sherf admitted to charges that also included providing alcohol to the girl and offering her drugs.
The deal with prosecutors did not include a penalty deal.
Prosecutors are expected to seek a long prison sentence for Sherf, who was 21 at the time of the attack, public broadcaster Kan reported.
Sherf did not deny having sex with the girl but initially claimed it was consensual, leading to initial charges of prohibited consensual intercourse, sexual harassment, making threats, assault, and furnishing intoxicating liquor to a minor.
However, the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court allowed the rape charges to be upgraded after a public rape, including the victim’s mother who said she felt her daughter had been raped again.
Although under Israeli law, sex with a minor under the age of 14 is considered rape, even with consent, prosecutors did not want to file charges because the alleged victim told Sherf she was 14 years of age and that he has nominally agreed to the contact. .
The original charge drew outrage from activists.
Prosecutors re-examined the investigation material and concluded that a rape conviction was possible.
Yarin Sherf (Facebook)
After the earlier charges were filed, the girl’s mother insisted, “His [crime] it is rape, any other interpretation is false.” She added, “This decision gives a green light to the next rape and helps it.”
The head of Israel’s largest women’s rights group called the first indictment “a serious systemic failure of the state”.
According to the indictment, Sherf came to the hotel, which provided a virus quarantine for young people who could not isolate themselves at home, on February 23, when he met the girl.
Over the next few hours, he established contact through the Instagram app, and after he invited her to his room, she suggested he come to her instead. Before he arrived, however, the girl found out his age through TikTok, and then told him that he was “too old.”
When she asked him if he was really 21 years old, Sherf replied that he was 20 and asked the girl her own age. She told him she was 14, prosecutors said.
Women protest against sexual assault laws during the trial of alleged rapper Yarin Sherf in Tel Aviv, March 12, 2021. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
The Sherf continued to message the girl, who told him to “let it go” and declined his offers to visit her room.
In one message, Sherf wrote that if she didn’t agree, he would do “Eilat 2.0,” referring to the gang rape of a 16-year-old girl at a hotel in the resort city.
The next day, a staff member at the hotel, after seeing the two talking together in a public area, warned Sherf to stay away from the girl. The Sherf indicated that he would.
However, the two continued to message each other and eventually the girl told the Sherf to come to her room, where they had sex. During the encounter, Sherf hit the girl when she refused to perform oral sex.
Hours later, Sherf suggested they meet again in his room after the girl sent him a photo of herself via Instagram. Although she refused at first, telling him, “I want to be alone,” she opened the door for him when he showed up and they had sex again.
A counselor who later knocked on the door and entered the girls’ room found Sherf hiding in the bathroom, and the incident was later reported to the police.
