Boy’s Facebook post gets parents arrested for abuse

A couple from Haifa were arrested Saturday for allegedly abusing their 14-year-old son for at least six years.

Police detained the parents after the boy posted a complaint to the Israel Police’s official Facebook page. The boy wrote that his parents had been abusing ​him physically and verbally since he was eight years old.

“I was beaten regularly, always when there was a family quarrel I had nothing to do with,” the boy wrote. “I would make eye contact with my father, he would get angry and beat me severely, sometimes even with belts.”

A representative of the police’s new-media unit corresponded with the boy via the social network in order to further establish the details of the abuse.

Information on the allegations was then transferred to police in Haifa, who in turn arrested the parents.

The couple were brought Saturday before the Haifa Magistrates’ Court on suspicion of abusing a helpless minor. They were remanded in custody for five days.