Aviad Moshe was sentenced to 23 years in prison on Thursday for the attempted murder of his former partner Shira Isakov and abuse of their child, Israeli media reported.
In addition to the prison sentence, the Beersheba District Court also ordered Moshe to pay a compensation fee of NIS 258,000 ($80,600).
Moshe was convicted in August of attempting to murder Isakov by inflicting 20 stab wounds with a kitchen knife and beating her with a rolling pin in the couple’s Mitzpe Ramon home. Moshe was also convicted of abusing their son, who was by Isakov’s side as he attacked her.
“The family nest that is supposed to protect suddenly became a chaotic arena in which the complainant is severely attacked to the point of almost losing her life,” the court’s judge said at the sentencing hearing. “It is appropriate that the court joins the battle [against domestic violence] as so many women feel as if nothing can be done. The defendant had a number of ‘exit points’ to stop throughout the incident but did not.”
At the conviction hearing, Moshe opened his testimony by apologizing to his ex-wife, stating that he “lost it, I have no ability to explain, I don’t know what came over me.”
However, he also continued to allege that his ex-wife had repeatedly “teased” him, something he had said in his defense. “I feel my voice isn’t heard,” he said. “All my claims are being trampled on. My mental state was the result of teasing [and] verbal violence.”
The prosecution said that “even with this opportunity given to him to apologize, he was still making the same accusations against the victim.”
The prosecution originally sought a prison sentence of at least 24 to 27 years, in order to set a “new standard of punishment” in domestic abuse cases. The maximum punishment that can be imposed for the offense of attempted murder is 20 years in prison.