Israeli man convicted of murdering his three young children

TEL AVIV (BNO NEWS) — An Israeli man was convicted on Sunday of killing his three young children about a year ago, the local Haaretz newspaper reported.

Itai Ben Dror was convicted in a courtroom in the city of Petach Tikvah, 10.6 kilometers (6.58 miles) east of Tel Aviv, on the basis of his prior confession. The court proceedings did not include witness testimony.

Ben Dror killed his three children, aged 10, 8, and 5 in their apartment in Netanya, 30 kilometers (18.64 miles) north of Tel Aviv, a year ago. The children were living with their mother at the time of the murders but they had come to visit him at his home. The killing happened on his wife’s birthday, but Ben Dror denied that he wanted to take revenge upon his ex-wife.

“You don’t need so many knives in order to commit suicide, and not on my birthday. I know that he did it all in order to cause me great pain and sorrow. I won’t rest or relax until I get what I want – three life sentences,” the mother of the children and Ben Dror’s ex-wife, Lilach Shem-Tov, said.

Ben Dror’s defense lawyer Ran Alon said in court that his client had acquired knives and pills because he wanted to commit suicide. A week before the murder, however, he decided to take his children’s lives “to save them from the banality of life and allow them to live forever.”

Alon intends to claim that Ben Dror deserves a reduced sentence because he suffers from psychiatric problems. Prosecutor Ronit Poznansky however told the court that she has a psychological report that contends that the murders were not committed due to a psychiatric illness.

The court decided to send Ben Dror for a psychiatric evaluation.

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6 Comments

  1. sunshine
    July 15, 2011

    There are so many, many, refreshing beautiful and interesting stories around the world, why chose those dark stories of other cultures and thrust them down the throats of a still virgin Dominica? Please find stories that are more condusive to the culture. The majority of these heinous crimes
    are not in the vocabulary of Dominicans.

  2. Humanist
    July 11, 2011

    This is what religious fanaticism causes. The fanatics believe so unquestioningly in an afterlife that they value death over life on earth, believing death to be nothing more than a gateway to bliss. To kill your children to give them eternal life has to be one of the most barbaric and fanatical and absurd things I can imagine, and this is precisely why religious fanatics are dangerous and must never be allowed into positions of power. Let normal, intelligent people believe or disbelieve in what they want and not commit these crimes against humanity; fanatics are a problem that we must try to partially solve by educating the youth so they do not as easily subscribe to such madness.

  3. TeteMorne I from...
    July 11, 2011

    Well at least kids go to heaven. Woe unto the soul of all who abuse and kill them. The flames await….
    :twisted:

  4. Pnuts
    July 11, 2011

    These dark stories of the premature death of children just keep coming. How sad.

    • Humanist
      July 12, 2011

      Yes, there are many people who would probably have done better not to have had children in the first place….

      • Anonymous
        July 12, 2011

        AGREED

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