London – A respected rabbi accused of Molesting a 12 year-old boy in a synagogue toilet has walked free today after his alleged victim failed to attend court.
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Moshe Reichman, 24, was said to have molested the youth in the Biala Synagogue in Stamford Hill, four years ago.
But the boy, now aged 16, has moved to Israel and Met Police detectives have been unable to contact him.
Reichman, was discharged from the dock by Judge Peter Birts QC after prosecutors offered no evidence on charges of Molestation of a child under 13.
Reichman, who listened to proceedings via a Yiddish interpreter, showed no reaction to the verdict.
The teenager, who cannot be named, claimed the attack happened between October 8, 2004 and October 7, 2005.
have to learn that EVERYONE is innocent until proven quilty
Without chas V’sholem accusing anyone of anything–it is noteworthy that no one said he is innocent–the accuser could not be located in Eretz Yisroel
Can you not read! He is not innocent, The victim didn’t want to come forward. There are many reasons for this.
Cleared would have meant that the victim admitted that he lied.
He was a teacher. Show him the respect he deserves and give him a good job in your yeshiva.
The headline is misleading. He was not cleared of the charges.
He was discharged by the judge. Same as when a trial is stopped because the accused mad statements without a lawyer after he asked for one.
VIN news, the headline of this article is misleading and not in-line with your usual stance of fighting against sexual abuse in our community. You are giving ammunition to those who prefer to keep their heads in the sand, as they will read only the headlines and use this as proof that children making these allegations are liars (as so many have claimed in other article posts). This man was not cleared of the charges and I doubt that is the language used in the court. The victim did not show up and so the charges were dropped. Perhaps a less misleading title would be “Molestation charges against London Rabbi are dropped due to absence of victim in court.” please consider using that or a similar title that still gets the story out but is not misleading.
This is just too sad. Here we see how the RBS”O orchestrated everyone’s actions so that an innocent man should have just the minimal amount of tzoros that he was supposed to have from this ~ and most of us are so blinded that we can’t see the facts! THE ONE WHO CONTROLS THE WORLD SET THIS MAN FREE! It was not some Limey judge! G-D doesn’t need help from the ‘victim’, the judge, witnesses, much less from anonymous bloggers to carry out His will. One day we’ll wake up! HOPEFULLY SOON
I am an open advocate of victims in sexual abuse cases. I have been involved in many & always on the side of the child. But I am very disturbed by this. If this report is totally accurate, the alleged victim could not be contacted. WHY? You can find anyone, anywhere…unless the person does not want to be found. Furthermore, if the CPS couldn’t offer any other evidence, or even get a continuance, what does that say about the strength of this case?
Mr. Reichman’s life is destroyed. So is his family’s. And for what?
Once a child molester, ALWAYS a child molester. If this man is indeed innocent, then chances are, he will be okay (aside from name sullied name), and we most likely not hear about him in the near future. If he is guilty of such crimes, there will be more children coming forward, and he will get what he deserves.
How do we know the kid didn’t skip town to avoid perjuring himself in court and possibly face indictment?
Or sue him for slander.
OJ Simpson was found innocent. So does this mean that he never killed anyone?
The accuser in this case never went to court so now it’s a guessing game as to why he/ she did not show up.
We will assume the victim was threatened and afraid to go to court.
Everyone screams innocent until proven guilty. Everyone screams guilty until proven innocent.
Everyone screams go to rabanim.
Everyone screams victims should only go to the police.
Everyone screams everyone elses way is wrong!
What probably makes the most sense is to make a police report and let the courts decide and not to chicken out when it comes to the actual court date.
By reading this site it seems there is no such thing as jewish person molesting someone or stealing. I do not agree that this is the correct venue to put such news when the facts are not out.
The facts are:Innocent UNTIL Proven Guilty! since the case was dismissed, he is innocent. for people to continue to say this man (whom I don’t know and never heard of) is not 100% innocent is wrong. That means that he is guilty just from a childs accusation. Why are the taxpayers paying for a judicial system?
If you were accused of such a thing would you just wait for your day in court or would you go on the offensive and sue the accuser and the adults telling him what to say?
People have publicly accused Kolko of horrible things that the courts cannot adjudicate because of the statute of limitations. The accusations were made well within any statute of limitations. Has he sued them?
The is no SOL in halachah. Has he been mazmin them to din torah?
If this rebbi is innocent he should go after the kid’s family. Of course if he does, they just have to prove the accusation is true and he’ll get nothing.
Makes me wonder.
I have to be careful with my words as I am very familiar with the family and the circumstances of the case.
As far as I am aware, Rabbi Reichman was not guilty of the accusation (and that’s all it was – an accusation).
Rabbi Reichman was questioned/investigated by Rabbonim who were satisfied that he was entirely innocent (I am close to one of these Rabbonim).
Rabbi Reichman was held without bail initially and following representations, the courts felt that he could be allowed out on bail but would have to remain under scrutiny at all times in view of the accusations.
That that CPS presented no case – nor put Rabbi Reichman on the sex offenders list suggests that, the evidence (especially with no victim) must have been extremely weak and circumstantial.
Whilst some of those accused are certainly guilty (and often, the Rabbonim will have established this) many instances of sexual abuse emanate from disturbed children or those with a grudge (often these children have been abused but not necessarily by the accused).
I wish Rabbi Reichman much success and hope that his family and friends can now put this behind them.
Remember the report you are reading comes from a goyisha news paper and they are only reporting on what the court press release releases. As for a respected rabbi PLEASE!!!! For that comment alone one should refrain from reading goyisha newspapers
I know this fellow.
Please do not call him a Rabbi, he is far from it!
I happen to be familiar with the case as I know the family of the victim, all I know is this, the boy has suffered terribly and so has his neshomoh.
The reason he didnt roll up in court was because the family were intimidated not to push charges, threatened with no school for kids and no shiduchim and all the usual frum blackmail stuff.
While in no way am i passing judgement on Mr Reichman whom i also know, what I am saying is that just because he wasnt found guilty on a technicality, u can chose to be don lkaf z’chus on Reichman, but dont start smearing victims name, because believe me something did happen.
There was no evidence, period. I don’t think that it’s that easy to have a felony-class charge dismissed. So now Mr. Reichmann, who sounds like just some young kid, 20 years old at the time of the offense, has his reputation and his life ruined for the next few decades. I say, he should take advantage of the very special British libel law system and sue everybody suable – including the media – for what they got.
I am also familiar with the case (as summarised by “stamford hilly”). It is a disgrace that this evil person who has destroyed this poor soul can walk free. The boy, I can assure you, will never “walk free”. His life has been totally messed up.
Batolah mevia lidei zimo.
People fully employed & busy will never have time to even know if they are sick. The real problem is unemployment,or people who are caught up in the wellfare trap unfortunatly. They sadly have no way to ocupy themselves which makes them go nuts mevia lidei shiamum, & results in Zimo.
I am not a phsycolagist, but from the little I have read many conditions are misplaced depression, may I suspect that pedophilia is no different, or am I totally wrong.
If I am correct, then to tackle the problem from the roots, we must structure our lives & the rest of klal Yisroel’s lives in a way that no one has spare time, this way this serious sickness may be avoided, however not understanding this sickness properly I may be totally of whack, even so, I still maintain that a structured productive life may fend off urges, and learning Torah [daily] is the spice that kills the yetzer Hora, and should asist in self control. I have read that almost all humans have a morbid side to them in some way or another,these unlucky individuals have horrible morbid side, and worse a lack of self control.
May a wish a speedy refuah sheleimah to all the sufferers & their unfortunate victims Besoch Shor Choilay Yisroel.
It would interest me if there are any statistics about productive busy people not suffering or suffering less of these problems.
I don’t mean to hurt anyone with the above comments, I am just thinking out loud.
Is it possible that MAYBE he IS innocent? If so, how can he clear his name?
If he IS innocent, I feel bad for him. Nobody will believe him now.