Crown Heights Man was arrested at Ben Gurion Airport just before returning to Brooklyn, suspected of sexually assaulting children

Border police arrested a 45-year-old Brooklyn car service owner at the airport earlier this week, on suspicion of child sex offenses committed in the south of the country. The suspect, whose name is under gag order, fled the country in 2001 and has lived in Brooklyn ever since. He was arrested shortly before he boarded a flight to the United States.

The arrest took place after the young man complained that the suspect sexually harassed him 12 years ago. Since then, police received three more complaints from members of the Chabad community, who told of sexual offenses the suspect had allegedly committed against them during their childhoods. Police believe there are others who are afraid to file complaints.

The affair began in 2001, with complaints about suspected sex offenses committed by the suspect on children. Police arrested him, but he was released to house arrest and fled the country. One month later, his wife and children joined him. Even though he had run from the law, the suspect came to Israel several times over the years..

One of the complainants who spoke with Ynet said that the suspect was like family to him. "During the time he served as kashrut supervisor, he would distribute surplus fruit from the places he visited, so he was always surrounded by children who would take the fruit home," he said..

One of his victims who apparently has not yet filed a complaint, spoke of his deliberations. "We live in a very crowded neighborhood," he explained. "Some of us are afraid of our wives, who do not know anything and would be angry that we did not tell them. Some are afraid of the rabbis who probably would not want us to air the dirty laundry outside’ and some say that it has already been a very long time and the complaints would carry little weight today.”

The same victim told of “an instance in which the suspect went to one of the mothers and told her he wanted to bring her son closer to religion, he took him once a week to the mikve, took him to slaughter houses in the nearby towns, and every one of these times, he assaulted him sexually.

Attorney Mazal Gabai Shamir who is the suspect’s public defender had no comment.