Police arrest man posing as 'modeling agent' over sexual assault of teen

Authorities say Netanya man took advantage of young women hoping to make it big in modeling.

By BEN HARTMAN
Handcuffs (illustrative photo) 370 (photo credit: Reuters)
Handcuffs (illustrative photo) 370
(photo credit: Reuters)
Promising money and fame, a Netanya man took advantage of a dozen young women – some of them teenagers – who were hoping to make it big in modeling, and in at least one case sexually assaulted a teenage girl he lured with the ruse, police said Monday.
The suspect, 50-year-old Ilan Otzmagin, was arrested following a police complaint filed two weeks ago by a 17-year-old Netanya girl, who had met him in a chance encounter in the city months earlier.
The girl told police that Otzmagin approached her saying he was a modeling agent and could help her win jobs in Israel and abroad. The girl said that she and the suspect then met several times at cafes in the city as he won her trust, buying her gifts and giving her a credit card with which to buy some NIS 20,000 worth of clothes.
After a few meetings, she agreed to meet him at a hotel in Tel Aviv. When she arrived, she told police, she was met by a 20-year-old woman who was also a prospective model.
Otzmagin asked the two to undress and he took “naked pictures of them in erotic poses” according to police. The 20-year-old eventually left the room and after the man plied the teenager with alcohol, he raped her, police said.
Otzmagin also allegedly had the girl call a friend of his and persuade him to go into business with him, under the pretext that she would give him sexual favors.
As police began investigating the case, they learned that another nine girls had allegedly been approached in the same way by the suspect, though some of them only met him once before cutting off contact.
Otzmagin, who previously served time for sex crimes, could face charges of sexual assault, rape, aggravated solicitation of a minor, and credit card fraud, police said.