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| A HELPLESS CHILD WITH MD |
Modiin Illit couple held on suspicion of abusing sick child
Police plant hidden camera in 4-year-old’s hospital room, allegedly catch mother attempting to poison him and father sexually assaulting him
רחמנים בני רחמנים
The parents of a four-year-old
boy suffering from muscular dystrophy were arrested Saturday on
suspicion of physically and sexually abusing the child.
Police
were alerted to the child’s condition by the medical staff at the Safra
Children’s Hospital in the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, near
Tel Aviv.
According to the hospital, doctors began to
suspect the child was being harmed by those close to him, including
during his hospital stays. They contacted the police, who placed a
hidden camera in the boy’s hospital room last week.
According to initial police and hospital
reports, the camera recorded the mother allegedly attempting to poison
the boy and the father allegedly sexually assaulting him.
The child, from Modiin Illit, had already
exhibited multiple and apparently unconnected symptoms that came and
went without explanation, Prof. Asher Barzilai, head of the pediatric
hospital, told reporters on Saturday. The boy was hospitalized in the
intensive care unit at one point, and was classified in serious
condition, according to the hospital.
“A child arrives in a complicated and serious
state and you don’t succeed in reaching a diagnosis even with the best
doctors,” Barzilai said. “There’s no disease [that would fit the child’s
symptoms]. The [medical] team was aware from the start that something
wasn’t right, it didn’t make sense. You start to put together the signs
and you realize – this doesn’t happen [on its own].
“You have to understand that the decision to
pass a case on to social workers and the police can destroy a family,”
Barzilai said. The doctors only took the step when they were “certain”
the child was being harmed intentionally.
Despite a gag order that prevents publication
of any new details of the investigation, including the identity of the
parents, police said Saturday that the parents are suspected of a long
list of crimes, including conspiracy to commit a crime, sexual abuse,
sexual assault, physical abuse, and causing serious harm to a helpless
individual.
Police arrested the parents on Saturday morning, and custody of the child has been transferred to social services.
On Saturday night, the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court extended the father’s remand by four days and the mother’s by three.