Exterminator gets 3 years for causing deaths of 2 girls
Under plea bargain, Yossi Barkan admits to using dangerous poison; will pay NIS 200,000 damages to family
An exterminator who caused the death of two young girls three years ago when he treated their family’s home in Jerusalem with a dangerous poisonous substance was sentenced on Tuesday to three years’ imprisonment.
Yossi Barkan, from Nataf outside Jerusalem, was convicted of causing the deaths of Yael and Avigail Gross, aged 1 and 4, by exposure to toxic chemicals, and causing serious injury to the four other members of the family.
The sentence was presented in the Jerusalem District Court after Barkan agreed to a plea bargain that would see him serve a relatively short sentence and pay the family NIS 200,000 ($51,700) in damages.
The Gross family agreed to the deal, having accepted the claim that Barkan suffered from “problematic health at the time of the incident,” a statement from the Justice Ministry earlier this month read.
In January 2014, the Gross family fell ill after exterminator Barkan used aluminum phosphide during a visit to the family’s home in the Givat Mordechai neighborhood of Jerusalem. When mixed with water, the toxin reacts to release phosphine, an extremely harmful gas.
Barkan left a container of the poisonous material inside one of the apartment’s rooms, intending to return to continue his work.
Avigail and Yael were rushed to the hospital along with the rest of their family, but doctors were unable to save their lives.
Their brothers, Michael, 7, and Yitzhak, 5, were hospitalized in Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva after inhaling life-threatening amounts of the gas. They remained in the hospital for nearly a month.
Barkan was arrested immediately after the incident but released shortly after on bail. His name was ordered made public so that potential clients would know not to employ him.
In 2015 it was reported that the parents of the girls were pursuing lawsuits against a series of persons, companies and state authorities involved in the incident for NIS 11 million (approximately $2.9 million).
