2023-08-24 10:55:54
A “serious sex offender”. This is how Judge Mark Gamble of Melbourne qualified Malka Leifer, before sentencing her this Thursday to fifteen years in prison, for raping and sexually assaulting two of her students, fifteen years after trying to escape arrest. fleeing to Israel.
Malka Leifer, a former religion teacher and principal of the Adass Israel School in Melbourne, was found guilty in April of 18 counts, including the rape of a student in her home and the sexual assault of her sister. this during a class trip. She had been acquitted of the sexual assault of a third sister.
This “insidious crime” marked the two sisters for life, recalls the Australian judge when reading the sentence. He added that Malka Leifer shows “crass indifference” to her victims.
“To anyone who survived such a nightmare, you are not alone”
A mother of eight, Malka Leifer fled to Israel when rumors of her crimes began circulating in 2008. Holding dual Israeli and Australian citizenship, she fought tooth and nail to prevent her extradition over the course of more of 70 audiences, before finally being delivered to Australia in 2021.
As they left court, the two sisters, Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper, hailed the judge’s decision to “break down the walls of silence” of Melbourne’s ultra-Orthodox community. “We’re here today because we never gave up,” Erlich said. “This fight was never just for us. We are showing that the voices of survivors will not and cannot be silenced, regardless of the obstacles.” “To all who survived such a nightmare, you are not alone, we are all behind you,” she added.
“It will help you on your wedding night”
The facts took place from 2004 to 2007, when Malka Leifer was in charge of the school, affiliated with an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect, and the two sisters were teenagers.
According to the indictment, Malka Leifer raped a student in 2006 after inviting her to sleep over for “kallah lessons,” a kind of premarital etiquette class. She has on several occasions told the students that she was preparing them to become wives, according to the prosecutor. “It will help you on your wedding night,” she told a student after a sexual assault.
“It was a life in which Jewish laws and customs were very important and strictly adhered to,” Judge Gamble said. According to the magistrate, this stifling environment and Leifer’s good reputation in the Addass community made it extremely difficult for victims to come forward.
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