Orthodox religious counselor sentenced to 103 years for sexual abuse of teen patient

Nechemya Weberman, the religious counselor from Williamsburg’s Orthodox Satmar sect of Judaism who was found guilty in December of sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl under his care, has been sentenced to 103 years in prison.

Weberman, 54, was convicted on December 10 on 59 counts that included sexual conduct against a child, criminal sex act, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

The attacks took place from 2007 to 2010, in Weberman’s office, after the girl was mandated to attend sessions with him for rebelling against the strict dress code at her religious school. She testified that Weberman had told her he had been waiting for her to come to counseling since she had been seven years old.

Weberman has maintained his innocence.

The victim, who has remained unnamed due to the fact that she was a minor at the time of assault, spoke at the sentencing.

She thanked Judge John G. Ingram and Assistant District Attorney Kevin O’Donnell for their work on the case, and said that she has gone from a severely depressed “girl who didn’t want to live in her own skin,… whose innocence was shattered at the age of 12 [and] who couldn’t look at her own reflection without feeling repulsed” to being a young woman who fought “a battle of justice, to right in some small way the terrible wrong, to prevent further evil, to protect the innocent, and most of all, to heal.”