8.30PM THURSDAY / MAY 29

THIS WEEK IT’S DETECTIVE STABLER'S TURN TO TAKE CENTRE STAGE AS HE INVESTIGATES THE BRUTAL RAPE OF A YOUNG JEWISH BOY.

When David Zelinsky, a 10-year old Jewish boy, turns up at school visibly beaten and sexually assaulted, Detectives Benson and Stabler are quick to suspect his tutor, Jacob, who dropped him at school that morning.

But when Jacob's alibi checks out, Stabler finds himself at a dead end with no further leads, and to make matter's worse, he learns that David has been kidnapped.

CCTV footage shows David leaving the building with his father, Avi, and it looks like they are heading for Kehalit Moshe, a small Amish settlement, completely separated from modern society. Stabler and Munch race upstate and find David safe and sound with his local Rabbi. David says he asked the Rabbi to take him somewhere where he would be safe from the brutal attacks.

Meanwhile, forensics have a new picture of the perpetrator, he's not an adult as originally assumed, he is in fact a young boy, no older than 14. With Dr. Huang's psychological analysis and interview with David, the detectives make a breakthrough and arrest 14 year old Jack Trembley from David's school.

When the detectives go to pick up Jack, they find him at home with his younger brother, watching a pornographic movie. He tells the detectives he's watched a lot of movies like this and it's fuelled his curiosity about sex.

Novak is disgusted by Jack's actions and demands he be tried as an adult. But when Jack's father abandons him, Jack spends the night in a cell, which hits a soft spot with Stabler, who begs Novak to try Jack in the family court instead.

Just as the trial gets underway in the family court, Novak interrupts with news of three further cases of sexual assault. As more details emerge of Jack's assaults on three young girls, the case quickly escalates into a media circus which isn't helped by Jack's attorney, Roxanna Hickey, who uses the case as an opportunity for her own self-promotion.