Ultra-Orthodox principal ‘allergic’ to court hearings
For four years after fleeing to Israel amid investigations of child sexual abuse, Malka Leifer developed an “allergy” to the legal system in an attempt to cause delays, prosecutors claim.
Malka Leifer, a former school principal, who is wanted on 74 charges of sexual abuse in Melbourne, Australia, is led out of the Jerusalem District Court. Jerusalem, Jun 14, 2018. Photo by Hillel Maeir/TPS
The former ultra-Orhthodox Jewish principal was convicted earlier this year of raping and indecently assaulting Melbourne sisters Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper when they were students at the Adass Israel School.
Lefier, a 56-year-old mother of eight, was principal and head of religion at the school until she was sacked by the board in 2008 when allegations first came to light.
She fled to Israel within days and after lengthy extradition proceedings, returned to Australia in January 2020.
In a pre-sentence hearing on Thursday, prosecutors blamed Leifer for four of the years she spent in Israel.
Psychological reports presented in the Israeli courts accused Leifer of feigning mental illness to avoid extradition – a finding prosecutor Justin Lewis told the Victorian County Court was justified.
“It’s some sort of allergy to the legal proceedings themselves,” he said, noting her mental health hospitalisations had almost always occurred in the days before hearings in her case.
“The proceeding has been extended by the acts of the accused in feigning mental illness for that very purpose,” he said of specific delays between 2014 and 2018.
The claim followed arguments by Leifer’s defence barrister, Ian Hill KC, on Wednesday that she is medicated daily for anxiety and depression after five years in custody, both in prison in Victoria and home detention in Israel.
Isolated and lonely, she chooses to remain in a cell, locked from the inside, in protective custody at Melbourne’s high profile women’s prison, the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, he said.
“She’s lonely and without family and support and it is clear that it’s having an effect on her mental health,” he said, describing her as a broken woman.
A former colleague at the Adass Israel School, Malky Fixler, provided a reference in support of Leifer.
“She observed Mrs Leifer to now be angry and agitated – that she had gone from being an upbeat and inspiring educator to an isolated, depressed shadow of her former self,” Mr Hill said.
Leifer was convicted in April of 18 charges including rape, indecent assault and sexual penetration of a child aged 16 or 17 over the abuse of Ms Sapper and Ms Erlich when they were students at the Adass Israel School between 2003 and 2007.
She was acquitted of nine charges, including five against the siblings’ older sister Nicole Meyer.
The sisters returned to court for the hearing on Thursday, a day after reading statements about the impact of the offending upon them.
Ms Sapper said Leifer was the first person who told her she loved her – something she yearned for.
“Faced with the painful truth that her love wasn’t real was a betrayal of such magnitude it left me broken,” Ms Sapper told Judge Mark Gamble.
Ms Erlich told Leifer the darkness she created would not define her.
“Instead I choose to focus on the light,” she said.
“I am resilient, I am powerful and I am so much more than the limitations you chose to impose on me.”
The hearing is continuing.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
beyondblue 1300 22 4636
Pedophiles will do anything to avoid detection or face justice. They are real low life and it’s a pity we can’t execute them.