Kramer pleads guilty
American David Kramer has pleaded guilty to five counts of indecent assault when employed as a teacher at Melbourne’s Yeshiva College.
David Kramer
52-yr-old Kramer pleaded guilty in Melbourne Magistrates Court via videolink to the charges which relate to offences committed between 1989 and 1992 when he was employed as a teacher at Melbourne’s Yeshiva College. He also pleaded guilty to one count of committing an indecent act with or in the presence of a child under 16.Six of the original 12 charges were withdrawn.
Kramer had been extradited from the United States by Victorian police to face the charges. Last year he was released from a Missouri State Prison having been found guilty in 2008 of sodomising a 12-yr-od student at a college where he had been teaching. On his release he was met by federal marshals and was held in custody in federal prison as the extradition process was completed.
Sexual assault advocacy organisation Tzedek’s CEO Manny Waks said: “Today’s development is an important milestone for the many victims and a watershed moment for the Australian Jewish community. David Kramer is the first perpetrator to be held accountable for his crimes against innocent children since this scandal broke in mid-2011 and the first within a Jewish institution as an employee.
Today’s developments will send out a strong message to our community; you will be brought to justice irrespective of how far back you committed these crimes. There is no immunity. Hopefully it will encourage some of his many other alleged victims to come forward – indeed, hopefully it will also encourage victims of other perpetrators within our community to seek justice for the abuse they endured.
We also hope that there is a similarly swift resolution in the other child sexual cases that are currently underway.
The victims whom I’ve spoken to are delighted with this outcome and feel a great sense of relief. Justice is finally being served – the perpetrator is finally being held to account. We hope and trust that he will get the sentence he deserves. I hope that once he is sentenced it will bring an element of closure to the brave victims who ensured justice is achieved. I call upon all the other alleged victims to try to muster the courage to hold him to account for the crimes he committed against them. For that matter, I encourage anyone who has been a victim of child sexual abuse to go to the police so that they too can achieve justice. Tzedek would be happy to assist in any way that we can.
It’s truly amazing when you consider the fact that there are now multiple cases and investigations into numerous perpetrators within the Jewish community, with many victims in multiple cities in Australia – not just relating to the abuse itself but also to the cover-ups. It is particularly sad that this mainly involves the fervently Orthodox community.
Kramer will appear in the Victoria County Court on July 17.
All ultra -religious communities comprise human beings who are imperfect and fallible, worshipping and practising religious laws they deem perfect and infallible; within that framework are some who are morally wanting, or mentally and emotionally unwell, thereby precipitating the kinds of abuses now surfacing for investigative and public scrutiny. The big problem throughout the years has been the attitudes and ‘entitlement’ those in religious authority have practised to keep secret and deal with in-house aberrant and destructive behaviour for the sake of preserving a ‘perfect’ religious facade that, to them, is all-important and all-powerful. For the sake of all those abused, and even out of respect for the religion worshipped (which also suffers secondary abuse), all those who abuse fellow human beings must be outed and face the consequences of their actions.
Dear Liat
let’s start by saying that interchangable ethical statements of the kind you have posted now avoid , let’s also say intentionally, a careful consideration of certain specifics.
Based on known criminal reccords, I could state the same just by interchaging “ultra-religious communities ” with “articulated women ” and also changing “practicing religious laws” with “entering into marriage”. I am very confident that, then, you would accuse me of …………ignoring certain specifics !!!
I am not going to mention any of the specifics in either case because we both know them too well.