CADMAN PLAZA EAST – The ultra-orthodox rabbi who cross-examined his own daughter whom he sexually abused as a child was sentenced to 30 years in Brooklyn federal court on Friday.

Israel Weingarten was told by Judge John Gleeson that his sentence had been extended because he, representing himself at trial, brutally interrogated his daughter, and forced his other children to perjure themselves on his behalf.

“It’s hard to make a case like this even worse – but you did it,� Gleeson said.

“It hit me like a bolt … that the fact that you would interrogate [your daughter, son and ex-wife] … was the reason you chose to [represent yourself] … You wanted to get inside their heads one more time,� Gleeson said.

Weingarten was found guilty by a jury in March of moving his own daughter between Israel, Belgium and Brooklyn to sexually abuse her for over seven years. He had claimed it was his ex-wife who abused her.

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