The Tel Aviv District Court today (Tuesday) sentenced Yarin Sharf to six and a half years in prison. He was convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl while staying in a coronavirus hotel in March 2021. In addition, the court ordered Sharf to pay compensation in the amount of 30,000 shekels.
According to the indictment, filed by attorney Ravit Shafir, after Sharf was diagnosed with the corona virus, he arrived at the end of February for isolation at a hotel in Tel Aviv, to which young people from out-of-home settings and those without a family background were referred. At the hotel, Sharf met a 13-year-old minor, who arrived at the hotel for isolation purposes, several days before. There was no prior acquaintance between the two.
On the day that Sharf arrived at the hotel, in the evening, he contacted the minor via Instagram and suggested that she get out of her room and sit with him and others on the balcony. Later in the conversation, the minor suggested that Sharf go up to her room.
After the minor saw his age on the accused's Tik Tok profile, she wrote to him: "Brother, forget it, you're too big." In response, Sharf replied that he was 20 years old and asked her her age. The minor replied that she was 14 years old and retracted her offer to come up to her room.
I will do the Eilat 2 case with you
Later, the minor sat with Sharf and other minors in the sitting area on the balcony. During the evening, Sharaf made repeated offers of a sexual nature to the minor, and when she did not comply with his requests, he threatened her that he would do the "Eilat 2 affair" to her. In addition, he provided vodka to her and another minor, and offered the minor to supply her with marijuana and she agreed. Sharf again turned to the minor during the night, on several other occasions and asked to go up to her room, even though the minor wrote to him not to come up today, since she was tired and asked him to "let her go".
The next day, at noon, Sharf and the minor were sitting in the sitting area on the balcony. A guide at the hotel who noticed them together, turned to Sharf and asked him not to approach the minor and ordered him to stop talking to her immediately, in light of the significant age gap between them. Immediately and soon after, the minor went up to her room on the third floor of the hotel. Sharf went up to the minor's room and suddenly noticed that the instructor was following him up the stairs. Sharaf said to the guide "What do you think I will do something with a 14-year-old girl?" and went back downstairs.
Near the event, Sharf wrote to the minor that she should come down. In response, the girl told him to go up to her room. Sharf went up to her room and the two had sex, with Sharf believing that the minor was 14 years old. During the incident, the accused asked the minor to perform oral sex on him. When she refused, the defendant slapped her hard. In response, the minor confronted him, saying that he would not dare to do that again, and Sharf apologized for his actions.
A few hours after the incident, the minor sent a photo of herself to Sharf on Instagram. In response, Sharf sent a message in which he asked her where she was and informed her that he was coming to her room. The minor replied: "No, not now", "I want to be alone". Despite this, Sharf went up to the minor's room and knocked on her door. The girl moved the curtain of her window, and noticing that it was Sharf, opened the door. Sharf entered the room and the two had sex again. At the end of the event, a guide knocked on the door of the room, and upon entering the room found Sharf hiding in the bathroom.
The indictment was amended to rape following a public outcry
First, it was decided in the prosecutor's office to file an indictment against Sharf, 21 years old, for 2 offenses of unlawful consent, sexual harassment, threats, assault and providing an intoxicating drink to a minor. Sharf committed the offenses against a 13-year-old minor in a designated hotel of the Ministry of Welfare for corona patients in Tel Aviv. But following public outrage and the protest that arose, the prosecutor's office amended the indictment and attributed rape crimes to him, when today, as mentioned, Sharf was sentenced.
Attorney Toni Goldenberg, the prosecutor on behalf of the Tel Aviv district attorney's office, said that "it is not a light sentence, but it is lower than the one the state petitioned for. We will read the verdict and decide on our next step. The defendant's confession is especially important, even if only at the end of hearing the evidence, and his retraction from the claim that the minor consented to his actions.
"Although the defendant's belated confession did not spare the young girl from the difficult role of a witness in court, it holds significant value even at this stage. During the process, the girl was exposed to publicity on social media platforms by the defendant and his associates, who placed blame on her young shoulders. The defendant's admission to causing severe harm to the girl will put an end to these publications and allow the girl to focus on her healing and life recovery, and for that, we are grateful."