Golders Green rabbi guilty of sexual assault

A strictly Orthodox rabbi has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman who came to him for religious advice at his home in north London.

Aaron Halpern, known as Rabbi Chaim Halpern, denied sexually touching the woman during a meeting in June 2022 at the premises above his synagogue in Golders Green.

The 68-year-old was tried at Harrow Crown Court, where jurors who deliberated for over 10 hours heard the woman had been experiencing mental health difficulties when she sought his advice.

The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had arrived with her father but went upstairs alone with Halpern.

She told police the rabbi locked the study door, asked her to demonstrate her physical strength and touched her calf before moving his hand up her thigh.

Prosecutors said he later embraced her, touching her breasts and genital area over her clothing, gave her £100 and told her to keep quiet about what had happened.

In a recorded police interview played to the jury, the woman called him a "monster" and said she had been frightened to speak out.

The court heard that, after she returned to Israel, Halpern repeatedly telephoned her and the conversations became sexually explicit.

Jurors listened to extracts from calls she had secretly recorded. A forensic analyst concluded that the voice on samples of the recordings matched Halpern's, the court heard.

His barrister, Sarah Elliott KC, told the jury he had become infatuated with the woman and admitted hugging her, but insisted that he had not sexually assaulted her.

The defence challenged the complainant's honesty and suggested her continued contact with the rabbi could have been motivated by money. It also disputed her claim that the study door had been locked.

Prosecutor Stephen Wells argued that the woman's account was truthful and questioned Halpern's initial denial to police that he was the person heard in the recordings.

The allegations first became public after an investigation broadcast by Israel's Channel 12 in 2022.

He was arrested by Met Police officers in March 2023 and charged the following year.

Halpern was arrested in 2013 over a separate sexual abuse allegation but was not charged.

He will be sentenced at the same court on 12 January.

The Met's Det Con Joshua Dwyer, who led the investigation, said in a statement: "Halpern exploited the trust placed in him as a religious leader to sexually assault a woman who looked to him for guidance and counselling.

"This was a profound abuse of trust. I hope today's conviction gives victims the confidence to come forward, knowing they will be listened to, supported and that we will always pursue the evidence wherever it leads."

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