Welfare officer accused of molesting minor in his care

Yosef Diamant, 61, allegedly abused his position to carry out 4 counts of indecent assault against 14-year-old boy.

By JOANNA PARASZCZUK
An indictment was filed on Sunday in the Haifa District Court against a youth welfare officer accused of molesting a minor.
Yosef Diamant, 61, is alleged to have abused his position as a public servant to carry out four counts of indecent assault against a 14-year-old boy who was in his care at the time. Diamant is also alleged to have allowed the minor to drive his car, even though the 14- year-old was not old enough to have a driving license.
The indictment, filed by attorney Orly Rosenthal-Na’aman of the Haifa District Attorney’s Office, alleges that in September Diamant took the minor to various beaches in the Haifa area, where he bathed naked with the boy and molested him in the water.
The indictment alleges that, on one occasion, Diamant told the minor that he loved him, gave him a cigarette, and promised to bring him more cigarettes from abroad.
On the second occasion the abuse is alleged to have occurred, the indictment claims that Diamant asked the minor several times to swim naked with him, although the minor complained he did not want to and asked Diamant to stop.
Alongside the indictment, the Haifa District Attorney’s Office has also served a request to remand Diamant for the duration of legal proceedings against him.
According to that request, evidence against Diamant includes photographs and a video taken on September 19 by eyewitnesses that allegedly shows Diamant stripping naked in front of the complainant and then bathing in the sea with him.
Diamant, who was arrested and remanded in custody after the video was taken, had claimed in a remand hearing last month that the minor and at least one other person had attempted to extort him using the video.
His defense attorney, Tami Olman, told Judge Orit Kantor in the Haifa Magistrate’s Court in the September remand hearing that Diamant had allegedly been asked for NIS 50,000 to keep the matter quiet.