Police detain 3 over TA 'group sex' investigation

'Why didn't more members of the public call us'? police source wonders, following beach group sex investigation.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Playing in the water at a Tel Aviv beach 311 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
Playing in the water at a Tel Aviv beach 311
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
Three youths were detained on Wednesday morning in connection with a group-sex incident on a Tel Aviv beach, involving several youths and a woman.
A police source said the youths were providing “open statements,” which means that they are not yet being questioned under caution as full-blown suspects despite being arrested.
“We still don’t know what exactly happened,” the source said.
As the national spotlight falls on police in Tel Aviv for allegedly failing to stop the incident despite receiving a report, some in the police are also asking why the many beach-goers who witnessed the event did not come forward to report it.
According to a Haaretz report this week, a large number of witnesses saw several males engage in sexual acts with a 35-year-old woman on Bograshov Beach. The woman, who is a mother, was the recipient of psychiatric care, the report said.
Police at first said that a woman called to alert them to the acts, and that a patrol car was subsequently sent to the area. After spotting nothing unusual, officers went back to the station.
Under growing media pressure, police have now launched an investigation into their own conduct, and intensified efforts to get to the bottom of what occurred on the beach.
The police source told The Jerusalem Post that the incident should have been reported by many members of the public who apparently witnessed it.
“More people should have called,” the source said.
The one caller who did report the acts to police told Channel 2 on Tuesday evening that the 35-year-old woman involved in the acts appeared to be drugged.
“She didn’t seem lucid,” the witness said.
Police have put out a call to all witnesses who were on the beach that day to come forward to the Lev Tel Aviv station and provide testimony.