Dentist threatened to ‘cook’ man’s kids
ARACIST dentist from Runcorn threatened to fry a psychologist’s brains and cook his children during a campaign of vile antiSemitic abuse that began well over a decade ago.
Dan Zaharia, 59, of The Deck, began tormenting psychologist Dr Eli Somer and his family after briefly being Dr Somer’s patient in Israel in 1995.
After discharging himself from treatment, Zaharia developed delusions that Dr Somer had ‘mindraped’ him and began sending emails, making phone calls and leaving voicemails making threats of murder against Dr Somer and his relatives and threats of sexual violence against his victim’s family.
James Coutts, prosecuting at Chester Crown Court on Monday, revealed how sick Zaharia’s stalking even extended to targeting Dr Somer’s elderly parents, who had survived the Holocaust, with anti-Semitic abuse down the phone.
Zaharia’s ‘obsessive’ abuse included singing Nazi songs to Dr Somer, threatening to ‘strangle’ him and kill his family members, harm his granddaughter and sinister messages to one of Dr Somer’s adult sons in which he vowed to turn his shoes ‘ red from the blood of your children’ and saying he would ‘slaughter your children to the last one’ while accusing the 37-year-old son of ‘penetrating his computer’.
In one disturbing call, Zaharia told Dr Somer’s wife that he would ‘fry his brains’ and ‘cook his children’.
He also threatened to ‘kill his donkey’, and at times sounded as though he was performing a sex act while on the phone.
The qualified dentist also sent photographs of his victim’s car parked in its space outside his home, and in April 2016 was refused entry from a conference in Amsterdam, where Dr Somer and his wife were ‘smuggled’ out via a back entry for their safety.
Zaharia was arrested the following year when he turned up at a conference in Switzerland where the doctor was speaking.
Further disturbing contact included posting on his victim’s daughter’s Facebook work page and a voicemail on Dr Somer’s wife’s phone claiming he would ‘dance on your children’s graves having murdered them’.
Zaharia’s vile racism was not confined to Jewish people – whom he repeatedly referred to under a variety of slurs – and during one of his rants he made sexual threats relating to his victim’s ‘n***** granddaughter’. Cheshire police were contacted on November 19, 2018, Zaharia was arrested on November 26 and interviewed where he made partial admissions, and the defendant was bailed on condition of non-contact.
His victim continued to receive phone calls from withheld numbers after Zaharia’s release.
The defendant had no previous UK convictions, cautions or reprimands, but had been sent down for two months when he was in the Israeli Army for threatening to kill and rape a dental assistant.
A victim personal statement read to the court recounted how Dr Somer had suffered anxiety, stress, sleeplessness and nightmares due to his ordeal.
He no longer promotes conference appearances and feels embarrassed among colleagues at having to deal with Zaharia and the need for extra security.
He now felt the defendant is ‘intent on destroying him’.
Andrew Jebb, representing Zaharia, cited a psychiatrist’s medical report that said Zaharia was suffering from undiagnosed psychosis which is probably a ‘ persistent delusional disorder’ and ‘a particular set of delusional beliefs about Dr Somer’.
A probation report deemed the defendant as ‘low risk’ of re-conviction but medium risk of harm.
Mr Jebb asked for mitigation for Zaharia’s guilty plea and said Zaharia – who has dual CanadianRomanian citizenship – wanted to move to Hungary to practise as a dentist if he received a suspended sentence.
Judge Michael Leeming, presiding, sentenced Zaharia to 19 months in prison immediate custody, and imposed an indefinite restraining order to protect Dr Somer and his relatives.
He blasted the ‘poisonous’ content of the defendants’ messages, which he said had left Dr Somer ‘terrified’.
During his comprehensive summing up, Judge Leeming said: “That type of message must have been terrifying for him.
“The same behaviour continued throughout March 2018, mostly on the son’s phone and that of Mrs Somer, including expressions of how excited you would be to see his children decapitated, and murderous threats.”
He added: “Dr Somer has been terrorised by your behaviour, particularly in the circumstances of the last 12 months – they are shockingly aggressive and abusive texts, emails and calls, so much so that Dr Somer may no longer answer international phone calls or calls from withheld numbers.
“He’s had to disable his voicemail which has led to you leaving messages with his wife and children’s phones.
“He feels as though you’re intent on destroying him.”
Zaharia had pleaded guilty on September 9 to one count of malicious communications covering contact from January 1 to November 30.
Two previous charges – relating to religiously-aggravated stalking and simple stalking – were deleted form the indictment.
Zaharia appeared in the dock in a white shirt, black trousers, glasses and was wearing a poppy.
He had a large bag of possessions with him when he entered the dock.
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