Former IDF chief's bodyguard apologizes for attack on woman

Erez Efrati, serving eight year sentence, says he can’t pay damages, even if victim deserves them

A bodyguard to the former head of the IDF expressed regret over the assault of a young woman at the Tel Aviv port in 2009, in a move that surprised both the court and his lawyers.

In November 2009 Erez Efrati was arrested on suspicion of attempted rape of a young woman after a bachelor party at the Tel Aviv port. At first Efrati claimed he had never encountered the woman, then later changed his story saying that he attacked her because he thought she was a terrorist.

The Tel Aviv Regional Court accepted a plea bargain with Efrati, who was a guard to former IDF chief Gabi Ashkenazi, in the high profile case, keeping the bodyguard from a rape charge. He was sentenced in 2010 to eight years in jail.

Tuesday marked the first time Efrati apologized for his action in public, during a hearing in a civil damages suit filed against him by the victim.

“I’m guilty and I’m responsible for the damage caused to the victim and her family,” he told the court.

“There is no need for experts to confirm (my culpability)…the testimonies of the victim and my memory of the event are enough,” he said.

According to the indictment, on the night in November 2009 Efrati dragged the woman to an area outside of her car, where he stuffed her mouth and threatened to kill her if she screamed. When the plaintiff continued to scream for help, he hit her on the head until she partially lost consciousness.

The court rejected Efrati’s initial claim that he thought the victim was a terrorist, as well as his appeal of the sentence.

The plaintiff who is suing for NIS 3 million in damages, attended the trial on Tuesday.

“Since this happened, I feel that I’m not the same person I once was. I don’t want to say anything to Efrati or to ask anything from the court,” she said in tears.

Efrati said that even if he wanted to pay her the demanded sum he could not afford it, or even a fraction of it.

“In the past I was a guard and didn’t save millions and never had any assets,” he said. “Even the NIS 150,000 I paid as part of the criminal proceedings wiped out all my savings and also included loans from relatives that I barely managed to scrape together from the friends I still had.”