A woman on Monday filed a complaint with police against popular ultra-Orthodox radio host Dudi Schwamenfeld over alleged sexual harassment.
The complaint comes almost two weeks after reports published on Ynet's Hebrew-language edition and sister publication Yedioth Ahronoth brought to light testimonies of six women who accused him of sexual misconduct.
"Over the years, I haven't told anyone about what happened to me at Dudi Schwamenfeld's house. I was scared. But after [Ynet] published the article about him, it all came back to me and I felt I had to take it out," said the complainant.
The 31-year-old said she was just 19-years-old when she first listened to his talk show on Kol Barama Radio and decided to contact him on Facebook, prompting him to invite her to meet.
"We spoke on the phone and I made sure we were going to meet in a public place so I'd feel safe. He gave me an address in Bnei Brak and we met there," she said.
"I called him when I was downstairs and he asked me to come up to his house. I asked wand he said he was uncomfortable being seen, as a famous person, talking to a woman outdoors.
I was in a bad mental state back then, so I thought I'd get support from him and that he'd show me the ropes about media. I entered his home, and he was well-dressed, wearing perfume, we talked a bit. Then all of a sudden, he aggressively held me against the wall, put his hand down my underwear, and kissed me. I tried to resist, but he yanked me onto his bed and laid on top of me so I couldn't move."
"I screamed and yelled 'get off me,' but to no avail. At some point, I managed to push him off me. I ran to the living room, and then he exposed his genitals and asked me to touch them. I refused, so he grabbed my hand and forced me to touch his genitals. Then he dressed up and said 'in all thy ways acknowledge him', meaning, we must worship the Lord every way we can. I was petrified to say something that would anger him, so I kept quiet. I just wanted to get out of there and forget what happened."
Schwamenfeld's attorney denied the allegations, calling them "completely false" and lamented that his client had not had a fair chance to present his version.
The reclusive ultra-Orthodox community has been facing serious questions regarding its treatment of sexual misconduct and sexual predators following the death of the renowned author and educator Haim Walder, who took his own life after close to two-dozen testimonies of women and children surfaced, accusing him of sexual assault.