Health system to blame for murder of teenage girl, women's orgs say

• Published date: 04 October 2021
• Author: EVE YOUNG
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Melnik was found partially buried near a park in Kiryat Motzkin on Saturday morning, after a passerby contacted the police to report suspicious activity. When reporting her disappearance, Melnik's grandmother gave police the name of a 49-year-old man from Kiryat Motzkin who was allegedly intimately involved with the girl.

During the police investigation into the murder, the suspect reportedly stated, that Melnik's grandmother had issued a restraining order against him once in the past, according to N12.

Employees of the ward allegedly knew about the inappropriate attention the suspect paid to Melnik, Kan reported Sunday. Police also reportedly alerted the hospital to inappropriate behavior on the part of the suspect and a young woman in the ward, N12 reported.

This was reportedly not the first incident in which a young patient was assaulted by the ward's staff. A security guard at the institute was accused of sodomizing a 13-year-old patient around six months ago, N12 reported.

"We are not safe in the health system," said the head of Israel's lobby against sexual violence, Yael Sherer on Twitter Sunday. "It is no accident, it is their policy and a sweet girl has paid with her life for their fight to ensure that they don't touch [abusers].

"A psychiatric nurse is having relations with hospitalized minors and it is known and documented and the mental health system does not expel that person from within itself. And this is certainly not an abnormal incident. The rule is that the Health Ministry allows sex offenders to continue to operate. That is what is normal unfortunately."

Sherer also commented on systems in place for those hospitalized in...