A man was charged in Tel Aviv Friday with sexual offenses using Instagram against nine girls between 10 and 12 years old.
Prosecutors told the court that the police found some 12,000 obscene pictures and videos on the defendant’s computer and smartphone, which he had downloaded from the Internet.
Eyal Cohn, 32 of Ramat Gan, was charged in the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court with harassing the girls.
He is accused of having explicit conversations with them and asking them for “sexy” photographs. He also allegedly sent them sexually explicit photos of himself.
For example, he allegedly asked a 10-year-old to send him a photo of her body for him to judge. When she sent him the photo he responded that she was a “bombshell” but asked for “your sexiest picture.”
According to the charges, when she replied that her mother had a photo of her in a bathing suit, he asked her not to ask her mother for it.
“I don’t want us to get into trouble here,” he wrote. “Nobody must now we’re chatting, it’s our secret.”
Later in the chat he allegedly sent her a photo of his genitals. These acts were discovered when two of the girls’ mothers found the chats and alerted the police.
Cohn’s attorney said his client had never met any of the minors, asked for their phone numbers or distributed any of their photographs.
He said his client regretted his acts and has no criminal record.
The downloaded pictures and videos allegedly showed underage boys and girls, some of them extremely young, naked in various sexual positions with both adults and children.
The prosecutor asked the court to hold Cohn in custody until the end of the legal process.
He said Cohn’s acts “display a shameful, illegal exploitation of minor girls for gratifying his sexual needs by taking advantage of their young age, innocence, curiosity and even distress.”