Australian Court Sentences Malka Leifer To 15 Years In Jail

Malka Leifer, the former headmistress of the Adass Israel School in Melbourne, who had sexually assaulted two sisters before running away to Israel and being returned to Australia, was given a 15-year prison sentence on Thursday.

Leifer had violated her obligations to the Melbourne Charedi Community, according to Judge Mark Gamble, and her „insidious offending” had left the sisters permanently wounded. Mother of eight, Leifer, was thought to have committed her atrocities between 2004 and 2007.

In 2006, after inviting one of the sisters to stay at her house to „sleep over for kallah lessons” – a sort of pre-wedding course that includes sexual education – Leifer allegedly attacked her.

Prosecutors said earlier this year that Leifer informed the students on other occasions, that she was training them to be brides. After a sexual attack, Leifer allegedly said, „This will help you for your wedding night“, according to Lewis. She allegedly said, „This is what is good for you“, in another incident.

After one of the sisters revealed what had transpired to her therapist in 2008, Leifer later fled to Israel when reports of her misdeeds began to spread.

Leifer engaged in a prolonged legal battle to block her extradition, arguing that she was mentally incompetent, but an Israeli court dismissed her arguments, resulting in her extradition in 2021.

On 18 of the 27 allegations of sexual assault brought against her by three sisters, Dassi Erlich, Elly Sapper, and Nicole Meyer, the court earlier this year found her guilty. A jury exonerated her of the charges against Meyer, but found her guilty of the charges against Erlich und Sapper.

The six counts of rape that each carried a potential 25-year maximum sentence, were the most serious convictions.

Sapper described how the assault had left her feeling „utterly broken”, „ashamed” and haunted by „vivid flashbacks” in a victim impact statement given out to the court on Thursday.

She keeps blaming herself for letting Ms. Leifer fall in love with her. As Gamble read from the statement, „She feels ashamed for not preventing the assault at the time.“

Leifer, who was viewing the punishment via videolink from a maximum security prison in Melbourne, was expressionless. Leifer has maintained her innocence throughout the entire court process and has never entered a plea of guilty.

She was labeled by Gamble as a „serious sexual offender” who had displayed „callous indifference” to her victims’ pain.

Before being considered for early release, Leifer musst nun complete at least 11 years, 6 months of her sentence. She’s going to be deported to Israel, as soon as she’s let out of a Victoria State Prison, most certainly.

Gamble deducted 2,069 days from 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.