School psychologist gets one year in jail for molesting 8-year-old boy

From the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz

Haifa District Court on Saturday sentenced a school psychologist convicted of molesting an 8-year-old boy whom he was treating to one year in prison.

The court added an 18-month suspended sentence, which will be in effect for three years.

The psychologist, Farid Shehadah, was employed in a school near Hadera. The verdict says that in August 2003, Shehadah summoned the boy, who was eight years old at the time, to his office for an examination. The boy arrived along with his sister and mother, and when the two left the room, Shehadah locked the door and molested the boy.

The verdict states that Shehadah continued to molest the boy throughout 2004.

Judges Ilan Schiff, Yitzhak Amit, and Hani Horowitz wrote that such crimes leave emotional scars, especially given the relationship of trust and dependency between a psychologist and a minor

State petitions court over acquittal of psychiatrist on molestation charges

From this report from Isreal

The State Prosecution on Thursday petitioned the Supreme Court seeking to overturn the decision to acquit psychiatrist Marcello Spitz of child molestation charges.

In response, the health ministry said it would reconsider its decision to allow Spitz to resume practicing pending the court's decision.

A panel of Haifa District Court judges had acquitted Spitz by a vote of two to one, saying the prosecution was not able to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Spitz had been charged with repeatedly touching one of his patients. In their ruling, the judges said the witnesses' testimony was valid and that contrary to Spitz's claims he was not in a psychotic state.

However, they wrote that they had decided to aquit Spitz because they believed the patient's unstable mental state and will to leave psychiatric interment led him to believe a version of events of his own fabrication.

Judges had further doubts over the witnesses' claim that the acts were carried out by Spitz in an unlocked room while his mother was waiting outside and that he came forward only after the most serious incident.

In the petition, the State Prosecution claims the judges ignored the fact that Spitz lied in court, claiming he had diagnosed the youth as suffering from psychosis and delusions while records show he had not.

A Psychiatrist Speaks in Praise of Suicide Bombers

I recently came across this gem:

The Head of Psychiatry at Cairo's 'Ein Shams University, Prof. Adel Sadeq, on the Psychological Make-Up of a Suicide Bomber (Archival Material) Iqra TV (Saudi Arabia) - 04/25/2002 - 00:03:43