The defendant was accused of stealing seven bottles of beer from a shop in Jersualem and attacking and threatening the shopkeeper. He signed a plea bargain to serve 20 months in prison.

Appearing before Judge Herbst in a Jersualem court, the man said he was living on the streets after being released from prison six months earlier.

“I depend on people’s charity, sometimes I don’t eat or drink. Today I didn’t eat anything. Sometimes, out of despair, I use drugs,” he explained.

The defendant added that various welfare bodies had failed to help him, saying: “All my life I’m in the streets, I sleep in a sleeping bag in doorways. I can’t sleep like this.”

The judge ordered the case to be sent for urgent review by the local authorities.