Six youths, four of them kibbutz members, have been ordered held in custody pending an investigation into their alleged participation in a gang rape of a 14-and-a-half-year-old kibbutz girl, extending over several days.
Four other youths are still being sought in connection with the incident.
The youngsters, some of them minors, deny the charge and have requested that they be given lie detector tests to prove they did not rape the girl who, they claim, willingly cooperated in sexual relations with them.
The accused told the court that the girl, a member of Kibbutz Shomrat near Nahariya, where several of the youth are also from, had of her own accord gone to the kibbutz’s fields seven nights in a row to meet with them.
According to members of Kibbutz Shomrat, who are shocked by the incident which has caused a sensation throughout the country, the girl only told her parents a few days after the alleged incident took place, when they expressed concern at her withdrawn condition.
A diary reportedly kept by the victim, detailing events during the week the incident took place, was used by the police in tracking down the names and identities of the youths.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
