Police probe sexual assault accusations against convicted pedophile teacher

After Shamai received his sentence, teachers held a discussion with students to explain to them the outcome of the trial.

By TAMARA ZIEVE
Updated: MAY 24, 2018 00:12
Classroom (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Classroom
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
The Tel Aviv District Israel Police opened another investigation against school teacher and convicted pedophile Shaul Shamai on Wednesday, to probe additional complaints by multiple students of sexual offenses.
On Monday, Shamai, a 49-year-old resident of Rishon Lezion, was sentenced to seven years in prison for sexual assault and statutory rape involving six girls, some of whom were his students at a school in north Tel Aviv and two others who received private lessons from him.
As part of a plea bargain, the Tel Aviv District Court in January ordered Shamai to pay each of the complainants NIS 25,000 as compensation.
The judge said: “The severity of these acts cannot be stressed enough. He exploited the gaps in power and status to perpetrate acts that were traumatic for minors and for which they will need psychological treatment for the rest of their lives.”
After Shamai was sentenced, teachers held a discussion with students to explain the outcome of the trial. During that conversation, several other students came forward and said the teacher had also touched them.
The school’s headmistress sent a letter to parents inviting them to discuss concerns with the school’s staff and psychologists. The letter also said that parents of the children who spoke up on Wednesday had been notified by phone.
Attorney Tali Gottlieb, who represents Shamai, said in a statement: “There is no chance of basing an indictment on testimonies from minors one year after the incident, when the investigation was all over the media, at school and at home. There is no evidential significance to the testimonies of minors in this manner and the investigation will end in nothing. I am sure that the State Prosecutor’s Office, the police and the school principal are disappointed with the sentence.
And this is their way of putting pressure on the court to make the punishment more severe, because it is inconceivable that immediately after the verdict, 12 new complaints of minors appeared.
Where were they before? This is a case which was in the headlines for a whole year.”
A parent of one of the teacher’s victims told The Jerusalem Post’s sister publication Maariv, “It’s very likely that the children felt that it was safer to talk after the sentence. These are children from another class, of which he was a substitute teacher for a significant period of time before he came to the class over which he was convicted.”