Abusive Beit Shemesh mother convicted

JPost

A Beit Shemesh woman was convicted on Sunday of severely abusing six of her 12 children. Her husband was convicted of taking part in the abuse and failing to prevent it.

The decision of the Jerusalem District Court was given behind closed doors in order to protect the identity of the children.

According to the indictment, the woman, dubbed "Taliban Mother" in the Israeli media due to her custom of wearing multiple layers of clothing cover her whole body and face, abused her young children "at least" 25 separate times.

According to the charge sheet, the woman repeatedly beat and otherwise physically abused her children, giving them electric shocks and hitting them with belts and sticks.

In one instance, the charge sheet said, the woman beat one of her daughters in the face with a rolling pin and slammed her face into the marble kitchen countertop.

She was also accused of forcing her children to sleep outside in a locked shed when she felt they had come home late, tying up her mentally impaired son for hours at a time and ignoring his cries for help, cutting her daughters' hair as punishment, and throwing water on her children to wake them up.

In addition, the physically and psychologically abused children committed incest when they were locked up in the shed, the indictment stated. [...]