Ein Gedi resident gives firsttestimony in tourists' rape case

By ABE SELIG
A witness told Beersheba Magistrate's Court Monday how she encountered two Danish tourists at Kibbutz Ein Gedi shortly after the two alleged they were raped by three Kibbutz Ein Gedi residents two weeks ago. Kirsten Hansen, 43, another resident of Ein Gedi, gave her account of the events surrounding the case, in which the two tourists, at the kibbutz for spa treatments, say they were both raped - one by two of the kibbutz members in a field and the other by the third kibbutz member in his room. "I heard someone moaning outside the door to my room," Hansen testified. "When I opened the door, I saw one of the girls standing on my patio. She had saliva coming from her mouth, and I asked her what she was doing there. She told me she had vomited, and I could see that she wasn't feeling well. As I accompanied her to her room, she told me that she wanted to look for her friend, who had probably stayed near the boys' residence." Hansen said that she didn't want the girl to go alone, so she accompanied her to look for her friend. "When we reached the grassy area next to her room," Hansen continued, "we saw her friend, who ran towards us. I saw that she looked unkempt, and she told us that she had been raped. At that point, the two girls hugged, and the girl who had been with me told the other that she was sorry for leaving her alone, and that she promised never to leave her again." Hansen testified that the girls went with her to her room, crying the whole time. Hansen also said that it was only at that point that the first said that she too had been raped. "After we got back to my room, I called my friend, and we sat and talked with the girls," Hansen said. "We came to the conclusion that we needed to call someone from the kibbutz, and my friend went to do that." Hansen said she wasn't sure who called the police. She also said that the girls told her they had asked the boys to throw them a going-away party and had a good time prior to the incidents. She also said that she had no idea that the first girl had been raped until she said so, mentioning that there were no outward signs on her clothing of an attack. Hansen also said that the first girl smelled strongly of alcohol. Later that night, Hansen accompanied the girls to the police station in Arad, where she translated testimony from one of the girls to police. Lawyers for the boys expressed doubts as to Hansen's translation, saying that they believed she may have added in things from her memory.