Man jailed for 15 years over rape of 82-year-old visually impaired woman

The Haifa District Court on Thursday sentenced a man to 15 years in prison for raping an 82-year-old visually impaired woman in August 2020.

He was also ordered to pay the woman NIS 90,000 ($26,000) in compensation.

The perpetrator, named by Hebrew media as Ahmed Khatib, broke into the elderly woman’s Haifa home — where she was sleeping in her bedroom, while a friend slept in the living room — and sexually assaulted her in her sleep.

Khatib was arrested four days after committing the crime in Ilut, an Arab town near Nazareth in northern Israel.

One of the judges wrote in the verdict that Hatib “shattered the plaintiff’s protected and safe world in one fell swoop.”

In her arguments before the court, Haifa District prosecutor Inbal Branson emphasized the importance of sending a clear message regarding the consequences for those who harm women.

“It is not difficult to imagine the horror that someone who wakes up in the middle of the night, in their own house and bed, and finds a stranger staring at them and assaulting them would feel, and this is true of the plaintiff,” she said.