Hero teen faced down evil for the rest of us
Some things are worse even than dying.
The shy, pretty victim, now all of 18, summoned enough courage into her 100-pound body to stand up and face her tormentor yesterday in Brooklyn Supreme Court. For unrepentant monster Nechemya Weberman stole this young lady’s youth, her purity, her very identity.
And he wouldn’t dare look her in the face.
Weberman, the sadistic Satmar freak, savagely sexually abused the young girl for three years, burning her flesh with lighters and telling her she was human garbage. Yesterday, he slumped his gigantic girth into a courtroom chair, looking slightly annoyed, as a Brooklyn judge sentenced him to 103 years in prison.
He’ll likely die there, in the close company of his fellow scum of the earth.
It’s not enough.
His victim’s torment will never end.
She walked into the courtroom, petite and blonde, and spoke in a small voice. But her message rang out into the cheap seats, loud and clear.
She said, heartbreakingly, that the abuse she suffered at the hands of the ghoulish Weberman, 54, which began at age 12, was worse than cold-blooded murder.
For murder victims, the torment, mercifully, ends.
“Personally, I feel that the outcome of abuse is, in a way, far worse than murder,’’ she said, dissolving into tears.
“With murder, the person is dead and it is final. By abuse, the victim experiences death over and over. Again and again.’’
He stared at the table, at his hands, straight ahead. He wouldn’t look at her.
This young lady survived her near-destruction. “I would cover up the burn marks inflicted on my body he used to serve his sadistic pleasures,’’ she recounted.
In fact, she thrived — getting married and attending college classes, her husband said after court.
She had to make it. If only to make sure that this never happens again to another child.
As she spoke, the painfully young woman sounded wiser than her years, as she dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. She pressed on.
She pointed an accusing finger at her own Satmar community, whose leaders she told me last month resembled the “Jewish Taliban.’’
Her neighbors betrayed her, shunned her, threatened her. And now that she has left a home she loved, the harassment persists.
In a way, the abuse of strangers was even more brutal than that inflicted by the sick and twisted Weberman.
Because the Satmars knew she was a victim of torture by Weberman, who was sent to counsel the girl by her school after she questioned her religion.
And her people — my people — didn’t care about her.
To some in the Satmar realm, keeping Weberman happy, burying his dirty laundry, maiming a child, was easier than finding justice.
This young lady never set out to be a hero. Only to survive. But now, she has to keep going to help other abused children stand up to reprehensible perverts like Weberman.
“I really hope (and pray) that this case sets a precedent and will tell other victims: You have a voice, even if you think no one will believe you and even when you’re scared of being chased and crushed by your community.’’
To the very end, Weberman was defiant.
He declined to speak in his own defense. He didn’t apologize. He refused to as much as glance at his accuser. And his lawyer, George Farkas, continued spinning the fiction that Weberman was the victim of a made-up story.
As Weberman was taken away in handcuffs, one thing became clear. He won’t be out there, getting his hands on young ladies.
For that, we have to thank one young victim who dared cry out in pain.
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