TV: Police ignored rape of girl, 16, charged her father for stabbing rapist

In a report Friday, Channel 13 news claimed police in southern Israel have ignored a rape complaint by a 16-year-old girl for several months. The girl’s father, meanwhile, was arrested and charged after he stabbed the alleged assailant.

Police denied the account, saying they had been unable to identify the suspected attacker because the victim has refused to cooperate.

The TV channel said the man’s identity was widely known in the community and found that police did not detain or question him after he was stabbed by the father and released from the hospital.

Furthermore, the report said, police questioned the girl as a possible accomplice in the stabbing, adding to her trauma.

The girl, who was only identified as a 16-year old student and member of the Bnei Akiva youth movement from Yavne, told the network how the man attacked her, beat her and forcibly held her down as he raped her.

Police disputed the account of the TV report and the family, saying that officials had immediately set up a meeting with investigators and welfare workers after the rape was reported in July.

“During the meeting, the victim refused to continue with the investigation procedures and as such a decision was taken by all parties to only continue dealing with the welfare aspect,” the police statement said.

Police added that when she was again called in for questioning after the stabbing, police found “serious discrepancies in her testimony and she refused to answer other questions so that we could not certify the identity of the attacker.”

The report did not make clear whether the girl and her family deny police’s assertion that she had previously been uncooperative with the investigation,