As a teenager, he stayed as a boarder at kibbutz Sha'ar HaGolan following a social worker's recommendation, where it is believed he committed his first rape.
His case later entered the textbook of Israeli social work education as an example of severe failures in his foster care as a teenager.
Sela would break into their homes, usually late at night or in the early morning, sometimes threatening them with a knife and sometimes beating them.
Despite having refused psychological treatment and at least one psychologist warning that he was still a danger to the public, Sela was released on parole for good behaviour six months early.
[2] Sela was arrested in Tel Aviv on December 14, 1999, by police responding to reports of an attack on a young woman and an eight-year-old girl.
During his time on the run, he broke into a home in Pardes Hanna-Karkur and stole money, documents, valuables, credit cards, and a key.
After an intensive search[5] and a tip from a relative whom Sela had visited, he was recaptured on December 8 near kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta'ot.
Judge Shlomo Friedlander said that the decision was to prevent authorities from spending an unequal share of their resources on his appeals, which could deny other prisoners their rights.
[12] In April 2017, Sela was convicted of indecently exposing himself to a female prison employee two years earlier, and had another six months added to his sentence.