An Israeli handball coach arrested two weeks ago on suspicion of sexually harassing some 140 girls has had his remand extended until Aug. 20.
Beno Reinhorn, 35, was arrested on Aug. 7 at his home in Herzliya and remanded in the Rishon Lezion Magistrates' Court.
Police investigators seized Reinhorn's computer and discovered that it contained hundreds of thousands of files and Whatsapp messaging conversations that contained video clips of underage girls performing sexual acts. The police also claim that Reinhorn saved some of the pictures on a flash drive and uploaded them to cloud storage.
Reinhorn is not commenting on the allegations against him, which include accusations that he pursued and harassed teens on social media in addition to obtaining and disseminating child pornography.
On Tuesday, the court held a hearing to discuss the Israel Police's request that Reinhorn's remand be extended by an additional 15 days. Advanced Staff Sgt. Maj. Uri Sadeh argued that Reinhorn had acted taken care to hide his alleged acts using sophisticated technology and a number of false user identities.
Meanwhile, the Herzliya Municipality set up an emergency support hotline staffed by employees of the city's welfare department to help meet the concerns of city residents following the revelations against Reinhorn. The city has already received a number of calls and complaints from parents who suspect that their daughters might have been victimized by the coach. The parents were referred to the police.
Meanwhile, the investigation revealed that the police also investigated Reinhorn for alleged pedophilic acts in 2009, but the case against him was closed and sealed.
The investigation has also discovered that the Bnei Herzliya handball club issued its own good conduct certificates for its coaches, including Reinhorn, on an annual basis. Reinhorn received his most recent one from the club in June 2017. Bnei Herzliya did reach out to the police and asked whether, given the investigation against Reinhorn in 2009, he could remain in its employ. The police gave the club an unequivocal "yes."
Bnei Herzliya said in response to the case that "as a condition of his employment, the coach [Reinhorn] presented the club with a police clearance certificate. When he was employed with us, we received no complaints about inappropriate behavior."
Police said Wednesday that the case into the allegations against Reinhorn is "one of the worst pedophilia scandals, both in terms of the extent of the activity and the severity of the crimes carried out using the Internet."
