Foreign workers' kids say abused by teacher

Police suspect 43-year old Ghanaian owner of day care center for foreign children beat them with wire

Tel Aviv , Israel -- A 43-year old foreign worker from Ghana is suspected of abusing six-year old children left in his care at a day care center in southern Tel Aviv, Ynet has learned.

The Tel Aviv Magistrates' Court heard Monday that the man, currently illegally residing in Israel, beat the children with pipes and thick wires. Because he had no visa, he opened the center every afternoon to foreign workers' children only.

One girl said she had been beaten with a pipe-like stick and a thick wire for her "education". Her parents passed the information on to social workers, who in turn told the police. They suspect other children were also abused in this manner.

Many parents confronted the man, who apparently has no experience or education in child care and is not known to authorities in Israel. They say he explained that he had only used the pipe and wire to "point to things on the board" and to get the children's attention, not to beat them.

The parents added that when they told the man they would go to the police he begged them not to do so. During questioning he denied all the allegations against him.

Police have engaged social workers specializing in interrogating children to question the alleged victims,

and in the meantime the court has sentenced the man to house arrest in a different city. Police say the interrogation process could take a while.

Inspector Yaron London, who is in charge of the interrogations, said the allegations against the man were serious. "He claims it was not abuse but a method of education he picked up where he came from," London said.