A group of
four 12-year-old girls were charged Sunday with conspiring to murder a
classmate and then dispose of her body in revenge for the victim having cursed
at a family member.
The girls,
from the central region of the country, were charged at the Tel Aviv Youth
Magistrate’s Court on Sunday. A fifth girl, who was also involved in the plan,
was too young to face charges.
The girls,
all in the sixth grade, said they intended to murder the girl because she
cursed at one of their sisters.
The incident
first came to light at the beginning of the month after several girls,
including the intended victim, overheard the accused discussing details of the
plot in the school bathroom. They alerted school authorities, and the principal
called in police who discovered that the accused were armed with two knives
that they had stolen from the teachers’ kitchenette.
During
questioning, more details of the carefully planned scheme came to light, police
said. The girls revealed that they had picked up tips on how to cover their
tracks from a popular Israeli teen TV show called “Galis” set in a summer camp,
according to the Walla news site.
The girls
tried to obtain rubber gloves so as to not leave any fingerprints, and planned
to wear old shoes so that their footprints would be harder to identify.
The plan
involved leading the victim to a wooded area near the school and then, upon an
agreed signal, two of the attackers were to repeatedly stab their target before
changing their clothes and then making their escape. The charge sheet noted
that the girls planned to dig a pit at the site to hide the body, Walla said.
The alleged
attackers were held under house arrest until they were to brought before the
court to face charges of conspiracy to murder, theft, and carrying a knife.
