TA Police rig apartment with cameras in sting to bust rape suspect

Police say lab results still can't determine if man actually did drug women, but still have at least three rape complaints against him.

By BEN HARTMAN
Rape victim 300 (photo credit: Judy Siegel-Itzkovich)
Rape victim 300
(photo credit: Judy Siegel-Itzkovich)
A local man was arrested by Tel Aviv police following a sting operation. The operation obtained evidence that could reveal whether the suspect had indeed drugged and raped several women over the past year.
The police are still waiting for the lab results that could determine whether the deployment of an undercover female agent and the rigging of a Tel Aviv apartment with cameras was in vain.
Police arrested the 37-yearold man after he arrived at a Tel Aviv apartment to meet an undercover female cop, holding a bottle of liquor in his hand.
The undercover officer waited for the man to pour her a drink before giving the signal to detectives who swarmed the apartment and arrested him, Tel Aviv police said on Saturday.
They performed a search of his apartment, where various bottles of liquids were seized and taken for testing.
The man was presented at a court hearing in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, where his remand was extended by five days.
Police said they suspect that over the past several months the man had assaulted an untold number of women, possibly dozens, whom he met online.
Allegedly, the man would arrange dates at their place or his own, and “would wait until their senses were dulled, take advantage of the situation and have sex with them against their will,” police said.
In recent months, the police said they received three complaints from women who believed that they were drugged and raped by the man; that they went out with him and at some point blacked out, waking up with no recollection of what happened in the previous hours.
After receiving the complaints, the police decided that instead of arresting the man and calling him in for questioning, they would set up a sting operation to catch him in the act and seize whatever drugs he may have.
Israel Police have made fighting “date rape drugs,” such as GHB or GBL, a priority but have not been able to make arrests or indictments.
The victims can rarely remember what took place and within hours of ingestion the drug leaves the system and is then undetectable.
Tel Aviv police said that their lab results have yet to return, though it could be that the women simply drank too much alcohol during their dates, and that that’s why they passed out and can’t remember what happened.
Regardless of the results, three different women had accused him of rape and his face has been plastered around the Israeli media, as police look for further potential victims.