Convicted sexual offender slapped with full one-year prison sentence

The Lod District Court accepted an appeal by the prosecution on Sunday to implement the fullest extent of the sentence of a convicted sexual offender to a full year in prison, Israeli media reported. After a reexamination of the case, the court ruled that Shne’or Landau, 30, convicted of indecent acts towards 17 minors in a Petah Tikva elementary school, will serve out his full sentence in prison.He was initially sentenced to a one-year probation, seven months of community service, and compensatory fines by the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court. When the prosecution appealed the decision, his sentence changed. The ages of the minors he violated range from six to nine. “The courts have a critical role in these cases: To make it crystal-clear that sexual offenders who take advantage of their positions of power to hurt the helpless will be punished severely and swiftly,” said Liron Eshel, an attorney and social worker who heads the Child’s Victim Assistance Center at the Israel National Council for the Child. The program has assisted some of Landau’s victims.

“We feel that the severity of the sentence, now that it has been changed to put [Landau] behind bars reflects the severity of the crime and its implications for the minors involved,” said Eshel. In March, the Central district Court increased the sentence of Evyatar Gross, a teacher who was convicted for committing indecent acts against a nine-year-old on school property, to 20 months imprisonment. He was originally sentenced, by the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court, to only nine months imprisonment back in September. “The court today looked into the victim’s eyes and corrected the invalid and difficult message that was conveyed to her,” Eshel said at the time. The mother explained that her daughter did not want to go back to school because of the event. The crime was uncovered last year after the girl told her friends that the teacher had shown her “where children come from.” One of her friends told her mother and eventually, the full story was uncovered.The girl was not his only victim, Channel 12 noted at the time. Gross also reportedly committed indecent acts against a female student of his on a bus.”Sadly,” said Eshel on Sunday, “the trend that exists of light punishments to those who commit indecent acts towards minors is very real, and is dangerous in that it sends the message that these crimes are not taken seriously.” “These children, who exhibited great bravery in coming forward, deserve to know that their community will back them up and deliver justice on their behalf.” Tzvi Joffre contributed to this report.
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