Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Shutterstock/spacedrone808
free at last

14-year-old locked up since birth sees the light of day for the first time in Israel

Police arrested the parents, aged around 60, and handed over the boy to social services.

ISRAELI POLICE SAID they freed a 14-year-old boy today who had been kept at home by his parents ever since his birth.

Social services in the town of Hadera, north of Tel Aviv, had called in the police after they were alerted by a neighbour of the family.

Police arrested the parents, aged around 60, and handed over the boy to social services for medical care.

The neighbour, Chiko Waknin, told army radio that he had seen the boy through a window looking “like a zombie in a horror film”.

“His eyes seemed to be saying, ‘Help me’, so I decided I had to do something,” said the neighbour, adding that the home was in a “dilapidated” state and emitted an “unbearable smell”.

The parents are Russian-speakers and hardly know any Hebrew, he said.

Their lawyer Dan Guilad, quoted by Israeli media, said they had been trying “to protect their son who suffers from health problems”.

Radio reports said the child had told police he was allowed to go out into the courtyard of his apartment building twice a month accompanied by his parents, mostly at night.

© AFP 2017

Read: National Lottery issues warning over ‘Euromillions scam’

Read: ‘He’s a showboat, he’s a grandstander’: Trump says he was always going to fire James Comey

Your Voice
Readers Comments
43
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.