Former school principal Malka Leifer convicted over sex abuse

A marathon journey for justice has ended with Malka Leifer convicted of 18 charges, and acquitted on nine other offences.

Malka Leifer showed no emotion in court as the verdict was handed down. Picture: Ynet News.

For more than a decade, the three sisters clung to the long-shot dream that the law would finally catch up with their former Melbourne school principal who had sexually molested them and then escaped Australia.

Their quest for justice became an international saga that spanned from here to Israel and involved prime ministers, extraditions, appeals and ultimately a six-week trial in Melbourne’s County Court.

Now a jury has ­finally delivered the words that Dassi Erlich, Nicole Meyer and Elly Sapper waited so long to hear as their former principal Malka Leifer was found guilty of 18 counts of sexual offences against two of them.

The jury acquitted her on nine other charges.

Leifer, 56, showed no emotion as the guilty verdict was handed down for sexual offences against Ms Erlich and Ms Sapper between 2003 and 2007 when Leifer was principal of the ultra-­conservative Adass Israel School in Melbourne’s southeast.

Leifer was found guilty of six charges of rape, six charges of indecent assault, three charges of sexual penetration of a 16- or 17-year-old and three charges of indecent act with a 16- or 17-year-old.

The three sisters held hands at the back of the courtroom as they watched jurors deliver their verdicts. At one point, Ms Meyer turned to stare at Leifer, who was alone at the back of the court avoiding eye contact with them.

After the verdict, the three ­sisters said they felt vindicated by the verdict, even though the jury found Leifer not guilty of all ­charges relating to Ms Meyer.

Malka Leifer at the District Court in Jerusalem in 2018. Picture: AFP

Ms Sapper said their former principal was “finally held ­accountable”.

“Justice was served today,” she said “For so many years, we had doubts this day would come.

“We sat waiting, hoping for years … and to finally be here today and hear those words guilty.

“There are no words, really.”

Ms Erlich said: “Her abuse has held us hostage for so many years. Today we can start to take that power back that she stole from us as children.”

Ms Meyer was steadfast in her claims outside court that she was abused as well, despite the jury returning not guilty verdicts on charges relating to her.

“Yes it is bittersweet but she is guilty,” she said.

“I was abused for 6½ years by Mrs Leifer and I was not allowed to say so much of that. I believe in myself, my sisters believe in me. I know she abused me.”

The jury, which deliberated for seven days, found Leifer guilty of 10 charges relating to Ms Erlich including rape, indecent assault and sexual penetration of a 16- or 17-year-old and she was found guilty of all eight charges relating to Ms Sapper, including indecent act with a 16- or 17-year-old, indecent assault and rape.

Sisters Elly Sapper, Dassi Erlich and Nicole Meyer outside Victorian County Court in Melbourne after the verdict on Monday. Picture: David Geraghty

The three sisters alleged Leifer abused them while they were students and graduate teachers at the Adass Israel School.

They said the offending took place at a school camp, in a school ­office, at the library and at Leifer’s home. Leifer pleaded not guilty to 27 charges of rape, indecent ­assault and sexual penetration of a 16- or 17-year-old.

She was initially accused of committing 29 offences but was acquitted of two – charges 20 and 21 – during the trial that related to Ms Sapper because it could not be proved beyond reasonable doubt they occurred before the relevant legislation came into place.

In March 2008, after first hearing about the sexual alle­gations against Ms Leifer, the Adass Israel school board rushed to fly her out of the country to ­Israel in the dead of night before she could face charges in Australia.

In a statement, the school’s principal Aaron Strasser said: “On behalf of Adass Israel School, we apologise to the survivors abused by Mrs Malka Leifer while they were students here. We are sorry for the distress they have suffered and the impact of that abuse on their lives and families. We commend the survivors’ bravery in coming forward”

Leifer’s escape to Israel triggered a decade-long legal fight by Australian authorities to extradite the former principal back to Australia, a fight that ultimately involved direct pleas from then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull to his then counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu. The sisters became high-profile advocates for Leifer’s extradition, visiting Israel where they met with the country’s justice minister, its top prosecutor and members of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.

Malka Leifer in 2006.

For years, Leifer – aided by ultra-conservative activists, ­lawyers and politicians in Israel – evaded extradition, claiming mental health issues until her last appeal against Israel’s extradition order was finally dismissed in late 2020 and she was forcibly returned to Melbourne.

Ms Erlich said many people had protected Leifer from “facing” the three sisters. “It just amazes us when we look at the journey that it’s taken so long and for so many years to get to this moment. It’s absolutely overwhelming,” she said.

“(With) everything that happened in Israel, it was so unbelievable that we would get to this time. And we have. She’s guilty.

“She did what she did to us and it has been proven beyond reasonable doubt.”

The sisters accused Leifer of sexually assaulting them for years in locked staff offices on the school grounds, at school camps and at Leifer’s home. Their vulnerability was amplified by the ultra-orthodox, sheltered nature of the small Adass community in which a school principal like Leifer was revered and her authority unquestioned.

“People looked up to her and listened to her as if hers were God’s words,” Ms Erlich once said. “She was someone who everyone looked up to and idolised. She was like an angel who had flown in from overseas.”

The court case rested largely on the recollections of the three sisters, with the prosecution describing them as credible witnesses who had given “lengthy and detailed accounts”.

The defence team claimed they had made up the allegations.

The Jewish Community Council of Victoria welcomed the fact that justice had been served and praised the courage of the sisters in pursuing the case. “The case has exposed gravely dangerous and damaging behaviour. It’s a wake-up call to every community organisation that works with children to do better,” council chief executive Naomi Levin said.

Manny Waks, a key advocate for the three sisters, is urging Victoria Police to pursue charges against those members of the Adass community who helped Leifer escape instead of reporting the criminal allegations in 2008.