Beno Reinhorn, a handball coach from Herzliya, was convicted on Tuesday of committing sexual crimes against 65 women, 57 of whom were minors at the time, KAN reported. At least two of the girls he trained told police he assaulted them.
Reinhorn operated various social media accounts such as Instagram and WhatsApp using a number of fake fronts including an agent at a modeling agency, a TV and movie producer and bathing suit designer. His goal was both to illegally obtain explicit photographs of videos of underaged girls and to lure them into a meeting.
He systematically used this technique on his victims for years, while ensuring that his victims would keep their correspondence on social media a secret from their parents and friends.
When parents, other family members or friends of the victims would confront Reinhorn, he would immediately end the correspondence and block that person and the victim involved from contacting him again.
Police claimed he was obsessive about maintaining all of his online fake profiles and did so “throughout the entire day.”
This had been the largest pedophile investigation in the history of the country, with the earliest offense reported being from 2008.
Police collaborated with the Lahav 433 National Crime Unit and the cyber department of the State Attorney’s Office. They also worked with social welfare specialists, who aided the victims.
Reinhorn accepted a plea bargain that included his admission of guilt in a series of crimes, among them raping minors ranging in age from nine to 15 years old.While the prosecution accepted the plea bargain, it reported having done so to spare the victims the difficult situation of being questioned. The sentencing had not been pre-agreed upon in the deal.