A former principal of an Australian Jewish school has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after she was convicted of sexually abusing two students
ByROD McGUIRK Associated Press
August 24, 2023, 12:05 AM
CANBERRA, Australia — A former principal of an Australian Jewish school was sentenced on Thursday to 15 years in prison after she was convicted of sexually abusing two students.
Malka Leifer, 56, must serve at least 11 years and six months of the sentence before she can be considered for early release. As soon as she is released from a Victoria state prison, she will likely be deported to her native Israel.
Leifer was principal of Melbourne’s ultra-Orthodox Adass Israel School when she abused sisters Dassi Erlick and Elly Sapper between 2004 and 2007. Erlick was aged 16 and Sapper 17 when the abuse began.
The Associated Press does not usually identify victims of sexual abuse, but the sisters have chosen to identify themselves in the media.
A Victoria County Court jury in April convicted her of 18 of 27 charges of sex abuse that she was tried on. The most serious convictions were on six counts of rape, each carrying a potential maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.
In sentencing, Judge Mark Gamble described Liefer’s offending against vulnerable victims as predatory and persistent.
The sisters had endured a “cruel and frightening upbringing at the hands of a very abusive mother,” received no sex education and did not recognize sexualized conduct, Gamble said.
“This case is striking for just how vulnerable each of the two victims was and for the calculating way in which the offender, Mrs. Leifer, took callous advantage of those vulnerabilities in order to sexually abuse them for her own sexual gratification,” he said.
“This is a serious aggravating feature in respect of all of the offences,” he added.
The Tel Aviv-born mother of eight maintains her innocence and Gamble said she had shown no remorse.
Leifer chose to watch her sentencing hearing by a video link from a high-security Melbourne women’s prison rather than attend court in person. She is the prison’s only Jewish inmate.
She began teaching at the school in 2001 and returned to Israel in 2008 the morning after she was stood down from her principal role because Erlick’s allegations had come to light.
Victorian police filed criminal charges in 2012 and the battle to extradite her from Israel which tested bilateral relations began in 2014.
Gamble gave her 2,069 days off her sentence for time already served in custody in Australia since she returned in January 2021 and for time spent in Israel in custody and under home arrest.
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