Daycare aide sentenced to 10 years for abusing eight toddlers in Hod Hasharon

Abd al-Hai was convicted of 277 offenses: nine counts of abusing a helpless minor under her care, 146 counts of assault causing actual bodily harm, and 122 counts of aggravated assault.

A Central District Court judge sentenced Ruan Abd al-Hai to 10 years in prison on Sunday for repeatedly abusing and assaulting eight toddlers at the “Gan Shel Sigal” daycare in Hod Hasharon, where she worked in the nursery group. The court also ordered her to pay a total of NIS 450,000 in compensation to the children’s parents.

The offenses took place between May and July 2023, when the children were between eight months and a year and a half old.

Abd al-Hai was convicted on April 19, after a trial, of 277 offenses: nine counts of abusing a helpless minor under her care, 146 counts of assault causing actual bodily harm and 122 counts of aggravated assault.

The court’s judgment described recurring violence against children who depended on her for care. It found that Abd al-Hai hit, shook, pinched, and threw them onto the floor or mattresses, sometimes while they were crying.

In one incident, the judgment said, she kicked a child lying on a mattress and then struck the child’s head and back. In another, she hit an eight-month-old girl while holding a phone in one hand.

The court also found that Abd al-Hai sometimes fed the children food that had fallen on the floor and, in one incident, forced food into a child’s mouth.

When children cried or approached her, she sometimes ignored them and continued drawing or using her phone. On several occasions, she left children alone in a room with the door closed while she was elsewhere with other children.

Verdict followed trial with video footage

The verdict followed a trial in which the court examined video footage from the daycare. Abd al-Hai’s defense did not ask to cross-examine witnesses and agreed to the submission of evidence and videos, but argued that there was a real dispute over how some footage should be interpreted.

The court acquitted her of 64 allegations, finding in some cases that the conduct did not amount to a criminal offense or that the footage was too unclear to determine what had happened.

The prosecution asked for 14 years in prison, within a sentencing range of 13 to 17 years, citing the number of offenses, the repeated violence and the children’s complete dependence on their caregiver.

The defense argued that Abd al-Hai had accepted responsibility and saved court time by not challenging witnesses. It also asked the judge to consider her lack of a criminal record and personal circumstances.

The judge set a sentencing range of nine to 13 years and imposed a 10-year term. She cited the repeated violence against very young children and the need to deter abuse that can be difficult to uncover because the victims cannot describe what happened.

She also took into account Abd al-Hai’s lack of previous convictions, her expressions of remorse and her participation in a treatment group for daycare workers who had harmed children.

The parents’ accounts to the court described lasting effects on the children and their families, including sleep and eating difficulties, anxiety and fear.

The judge acknowledged that the families’ concerns about the children’s future would continue after the case ended. She also told parents who had expressed guilt that they could not have known what was happening, according to the judgment.

The NIS 450,000 compensation will be paid in 25 monthly installments beginning December 1. Abd al-Hai is to report to prison on October 18 to begin serving her sentence. The judgment says she may appeal to the Supreme Court within 45 days.