Ex-hostage recalls ‘flashes’ from alleged rape by trainer who she says drugged her
In 1st interview since going public as plaintiff in case against well-known influencer, Mia Schem says suspect convinced her to host meeting by saying Hollywood producer would attend
A former Hamas hostage who recently came forward as the complainant in a rape case against a well-known Tel Aviv trainer said Saturday that the suspect convinced her to host a meeting in her home where the assault took place by claiming a Hollywood producer would be in attendance.
Mia Schem revealed herself to be the plaintiff in the case on Thursday. The suspect, a man in his 30s, was arrested in late March during a raid of his home. He was subsequently released from police custody but remains a suspect in the case.
The trainer is reported to be a prominent figure on social media with several celebrity clients, including a former prime minister.
“I’ve decided to tell the truth. I’m not the one who needs to hide,” Schem told Channel 12 at the beginning of what was her first interview since coming forward as the complainant in the case.
Schem said that being sexually assaulted “was always my biggest fear in life. Before captivity, during captivity, and it happened to me after captivity, in my home, in my safest place.”
In March, the network reported that police were probing whether the trainer had used a date-rape drug. Schem’s friends allegedly found her at her home after she had spent time socially with the trainer and another person, with only a hazy memory of what had taken place.
She was then taken to the hospital for a medical examination, which determined that she recently had sex — something she had no memory of, according to the report.
“The thing that maddens me the most is the thought that I don’t remember. I don’t know what happened. My body remembers. My body feels everything, but it took me three days to connect my physical feelings to [my awareness].”
According to Channel 12, Schem and the trainer met at a Purim party in March. “His studio is very close to where I live, and I understood that he’s very well-known in his field,” she said.
Schem reportedly had three training sessions with the trainer in the following weeks. The suspect also talked with Schem about his own emotional state and personal issues.
At one point, the trainer reportedly offered to connect Schem with a “Hollywood movie producer” who was interested in meeting her.
“I’m writing a book and — especially after what I went through — there are a lot of people who want to take my story and build something out of it, so to me it seemed completely normal,” Schem told Channel 12.
Schem reportedly waited for two hours at a hotel to meet the producer, but he did not arrive. A second meeting was then set up at her home.
“I told my best friend the night before: ‘There will be a meeting at my place on Sunday with a senior Hollywood movie producer, and it’s important to me that you be by my side at home,'” Schem recalled.
Two hours after the agreed-upon time, the trainer arrived on his own. He aggressively told Schem’s friend, Abie, to leave the apartment because of the importance of the meeting, the network said.
“From the moment he entered, I don’t remember anything,” Schem said.
Abie recalled to Channel 12 that she didn’t think something was off after being told to leave, but that when she returned, “Mia was already not herself.”
“I don’t even remember how I opened the door [for Abie],” Schem said… The only thing I remember from that day is that I’m sitting in front of [the trainer]. I’m very hazy, and he understands that something happened to me.”
She texted the trainer the following day, asking if everything had been okay during the meeting, and the suspect responded affirmatively, Channel 12 said.
The network revealed security camera footage from the building that showed the trainer arriving at 4:00 p.m. and another man — who was not a Hollywood producer — arriving at 6:30 p.m. The second man, whose identity is unclear but reportedly resides in the US, left the building from the back door an hour later, and the trainer left 20 minutes afterward.
Schem’s family reportedly noticed she was acting differently after the incident. “My older brother told me: ‘What do you have? What’s gotten into you? What’s going on with you?’ He tells me: ‘You look like you did after your captivity,'” Schem recalled. “I looked empty, and I couldn’t stop crying. I didn’t understand why I was crying, and I didn’t put it all together.”
Schem said she then began to gradually recall details from the event, including of the trainer walking into her closet while she was getting dressed. “Another flash I have is that I’m not completely dressed, and there really is another person at home, but I don’t know how I got from place to place.”
Schem consulted with a friend of hers, who is a former addict, who told her she had been drugged. Schem then underwent tests that confirmed she had been raped.
“This was my biggest fear my whole life, and suddenly I understand, in the current situation, that I can’t get up. I can’t get over it,” Schem said.
The suspect initially told investigators he had never entered Schem’s bedroom — where she alleges he raped her — at any point during the night in question.
During a cross-examination in early April, however, he reportedly changed his story and said that he did enter Schem’s room while she was changing clothes because he wanted to check the address of the apartment to send it to the third person joining them that night.
But according to Schem, Ynet reported, the trainer already had her address, having navigated to the apartment thanks to a text she sent him with it.
“The last thing I wanted was a saga like this,” Schem told Channel 12. “I need quiet to process my life. I haven’t yet begun processing my captivity. ”
“In captivity in Hamas’s tunnels, without a (working) arm, I had hope. But now all of a sudden, I’m in darkness.”
But when asked if she has the strength to continue, Schem answered: “I don’t have a choice. That’s probably my essence. I probably have a purpose in this world. And there are 59 more hostages. I don’t forget for a moment that there are still hostages in Gaza. That’s more important than anything.”
The Times of Israel Community.