Nanny gets one year in prison for abusing seven infants in Rehovot

Rehovot Magistrate's Court on Monday sentenced nanny Tamar Hanegbi to one year in prison for abusing seven infants at a Na'amat day care center in the city where she worked.

Her colleague Sigal Sharabi was convicted on four counts of abusing infants and was sentenced to three months of public service.

The day care center where Sharabi and Hanegbi worked is decided into three classes. The class under their supervision was comprised of infants between four and six months of age.

Presiding Judge Yaron Levy also ordered the defendants to pay thousands of shekels in compensation to their victims.

The charges filed some two years ago maintained the two defendants would shout at babies who were crying and gives them nicknames such as "Esti the Ugly." They were also accused of physical abuse of the infants under their care. In addition, Hanegbi was accused of forbidding other nannies in the center from coming to the assistance of crying infants.

Levy said the case was not unusual and called on the justice system to eradicate the recent pattern of infant abuse via "significant, painful and strict punishment."

Source: Nanny gets one year in prison for abusing seven infants in Rehovot. Haaretz (3 July 2006) [FullText]