A former unlicensed therapist in Brooklyn who was sentenced to more than a hundred years in prison for child sex crimes saw his sentence reduced to 18 years on Tuesday, according to the New York Daily News.
A Brooklyn judge slashed the sentence for Nechemya Weberman to 18 years from 103 years after the defendant moved to have his sentence vacated because other defendants convicted of similar crimes get shorter sentences, the paper said.
Weberman, once a notable leader in the Satmar Hasidic community in Williamsburg, has already served 13 years.
His behavior in court on Tuesday, where he initially denied remembering details of his crime, may have worked against him, the paper said. Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Joseph Alexis said he would "pivot away" from his original plan of reducing his sentence to 15 years, the paper reported.
The victim, who was sexually assaulted by Weberman for several years, said the defendant "didn't just violate my body, he violated my emotional, mental and physical well being as a child."
"This is not just a case about a man who has deeply violated one child," the victim said. "This is the case of an older, grown man who has strategically placed himself into multiple positions of power."
