Child-killer Pimstein ordered to pay damages to state

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
Eli Pimstein, who murdered his young daughter three and a half years ago, after first insisting she had disappeared, was ordered Thursday by the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court to pay the state NIS 1.5 million in damages. The ruling, which was originally handed down three years ago only to be cancelled on a technicality, was reinstated Thursday, the prosecutor in the case said. Two years ago, Pimstein was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his 22-month old daughter, Hodaya, in one of the most chilling criminal murder cases in modern-day Israeli history. The child killer drowned his daughter in his bathtub three and a half years ago, then buried her in a nearby forest on the outskirts of Jerusalem. The case kept the country riveted for four days in December 2002 as Pimstein appeared on national television to beg the public to help find his missing daughter. Hundreds of volunteers and security officials took part in the searches until the toddler's body was suddenly discovered after a tip by an Arab worker, who connected Pimstein with a man he saw digging a pit in the forest west of Jerusalem a month earlier during a chance encounter. Pimstein decided to murder his daughter after having arguments with her mother over visitation rights and child support. Three years ago, the Jerusalem court awarded the ZAKA Search and Rescue Organization NIS 500,000 in damages in a separate civil suit the group filed. Pimstein's Jerusalem home has been impounded by the state. The money awarded to the state Thursday was to pay for the cost of the four days of searches carried out for the deceased girl. Pimstein has refused to express remorse for the murder. M3edical officials who have come in contact with Pimstein since his arrest have said that they have rarely encountered a murderer who was so calm and composed.