Cleaner saw ex-principal Malka Leifer with girls in office, classroom outside of school hours, court told
A former cleaner at the school where accused sex abuser Malka Leifer was principal has told a court who he saw with the woman outside of school hours.
A former cleaner saw ex-principal Malka Leifer with girls in her office outside of school hours, a court has been told.
The 55-year-old former principal of ultra-Orthodox Jewish Adass Israel School is facing 74 charges, including 11 counts of rape in relation to three sisters between 2004 and 2008.
But Mrs Leifer did not appear in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday after she was granted permission to observe Yom Kippur – one of the holiest days on the Jewish calendar.
She will formally be asked to enter a plea at the end of the committal hearing.
Former cleaner Mario Toledo was questioned about the movements of the former principal at the school between 2001 and 2008.
He remembers seeing Mrs Leifer coming to the school on Sundays and she was occasionally with girls.
“On some occasions I would see her with one two or three girls, but on some occasions with one,” Mr Toledo said through a Spanish interpreter.
He said he would see Mrs Leifer go into her office or neighbouring classrooms; however, he “never paid any attention” to what was said.
“I was never close to her and the girls,” Mr Toledo told the court.
The cleaner started working at the school in 1991 and did not speak Hebrew or Yiddish and initially spoke only a little English, he said.
The identity of the girls he saw was not aired in court.
It was the first time the court was open to media and observers as two of the alleged victims gave their evidence in a closed courtroom, which is standard practice for sex assault cases in Victoria.
The sexual abuse charges relate to three sisters – Dassi Erlich, Elly Sapper and Nicole Meyer – who previously sought a court order so they could be named in proceedings.
Two sisters have testified so far and the third is expected to give evidence on Friday.
Charge sheets the court released show the former principal is accused of multiple counts of rape, indecent assault, “wilfully commit an indecent act” with a child under her care and sexual penetration of a child under her care.
The acts allegedly took place across the Melbourne suburbs of Elsternwick, Elwood and Frankston as well as the regional towns of Rawson, Emerald and Blampied.
Mrs Leifer left Australia for Israel in 2008 when the allegations emerged and was extradited back at the start of this year.