COURAGEOUS JEWISH COMMUNITY SURVIVOR WINS ABUSE VERDICT
The Courage of survivors is again and again coming to the fore in the public mind. In a front page story The New York Times reported today that a 18 year old female survivor prevailed on all 59 clriminal counts of repeated sexual abuse brought against her prominent 54 year old ultra-Orthodox Jewish therapist in Brooklyn New York in a case which should impress on the Hasidic Jewish community the existence of childhood sexual abuse in its neighborhoods, as has been established in the Roman Catholic Church.
This anonymous woman joins the courageous ranks of the ten survivors who challenged Penn State in the Jerry Sandusky criminal trial, and the ten heroic survivors of whom I wrote in my recent book “When Priests Become Predators: Profiles of Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivors.”
The public needs to know how hard it is for survivors to take the stand against their tormentors, in a criminal or civil court. Here in NYC this woman was viciously attacked as a liar seeking to punish a revered authority figure. But the jury bought none of these lawyers tricks. The jury in the Sandusky case also rejected claims that the victims were just out for money or delusional. And the Roman Church adds to these smoke screens with claims that the victim was just a sexual tart or the problem was the fault of his or her parents who just did not do enough to protect their child from predators.
The entire news story can be found at – http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/nyregion/hasidic-man-found-guilty-of-sexual-abuse.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0
The sexual abuse lasted for three years beginning at age 12, and included oral sex. The defendant denied anything ever happened and claimed the girl was just a liar. He now faces a sentence which could range up to 25 years in prison.
The district attorney in Brooklyn reportedly praised the “great courage” of the victim.
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