Malka Leifer sentencing: No remorse as law catches up with a callous predator

As it dawned on Malka Leifer that she would spend another six years in jail, a tear glistened on her cheek. But it looked more like hollow self-pity than remorse.

Sisters Nicole Meyer , Elly Sapper and Dassi Erlich outside the County Court after their former teacher Malka Leifer was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

As it dawned on Malka Leifer that she would spend another six years in an Australian jail, her head began to rock from side to side and a tear glistened on her cheek.

But it looked more like hollow self-pity from the convicted sex ­offender than remorse for the repeated rape and abuse of two ­former students of the ultra-­orthodox Jewish school where she was once the principal.

As Judge Mark Gamble said on handing Leifer a 15-year sentence, the 56-year-old has never shown any regret for her abuse and still insists she is innocent of all 18 sexual assault charges against her.

“I am not convinced Ms Leifer has in any way reformed,” he told Melbourne’s County Court.

Monochrome court sketch of Malka Leifer appearing before County Court. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Paul Tyquin

He said Leifer’s repeated assaults on the students between 2004 and 2008 while she was principal of Melbourne’s Adass Israel school was a case of “callous” and deliberate grooming of highly vulnerable young women who were “completely ignorant about sexual matters”.

“This case is striking for just how vulnerable these victims were, and for the calculating way in which the offender, Ms Leifer, took callous advantage of those vulnerabilities in order to sexually abuse them for her own sexual gratification,” Judge Gamble said.

“It was predatory in nature involving the exploitation of two (women) over whom she had total control (and) it has had a devastating impact on each victim.”

As he spoke, the victims – sisters Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper – sat in the court alongside their other sister, Nicole Meyer, each casting an occasional glance at Leifer who appeared via video from prison.

Leifer, who wore a black headdress, listened to the proceedings with her head cocked sideways and her hand covering her chin and mouth.

As the size of her sentence became apparent, the sisters in court could not help but smile, as much from relief as anything.

Their 13-year international quest for justice – which involved prime ministers, extradition, appeals and endless setbacks – had finally delivered the verdict they once feared they would never get.

“We wondered if this day would ever come … it’s quite unbelievable that we have got here,” Ms Erlich said outside the court.

“We are here today because we did not give up. And while we know that the onus of justice should not be up to survivors, this fight was never just for us.

“We are showing that the voices of survivors will not and cannot be silenced. This has been one of the most traumatising, destabilising and awful, painful paths to justice, but today really marks the end to this chapter of our lives,” she said.

Judge Gamble said the seriousness of the charges warranted a ­serious sentence. The jail term of 15 years with a non-parole period of 11½ years means Leifer will serve almost another six years after taking into account the 5½ years she has already served in jail in both Israel and Australia. She will be eligible for parole in June 2029.

The judge said his sentence took into account the “onerous” impact of jail on Ms Leifer. He said that as the only ultra-orthodox Jewish inmate of the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in west Melbourne, she was an “isolated figure” who was cut off from all aspects of her life including her family, culture, religion and language.

He cited a character reference provided by one of Leifer’s former Adass Israel School colleagues, Malky Fixler, as saying Leifer, who has been in a prison since she was extradited from Israel in January 2020, was ”a depressed shadow of her former self”.

Judge Gamble said she was suffering from PTSD from prison life and was on medication for depression and anxiety.

He said when Leifer was eventually released from prison she would likely be deported because she had no Australian visa and that she had expressed a desire to return to Israel.

Leifer was found guilty of 18 charges out of 27 by a County Court jury in April, including rape, indecent assault and sexual penetration of a 16 or 17-year-old.

Judge Gamble went into explicit detail about each charge in court, saying the sisters’ sheltered upbringing in a strict ultra-orthodox Adass family meant they had no understanding of what Leifer was doing to them.

He said Leifer knew this and exploited the vulnerabilities of the girls, abusing them at the school, in her home and at a school camp.

He said the sisters had both expressed guilt about what happened to them but that this was misplaced. “They were completely innocent victims of the predatory behaviour of Ms Leifer and it is she and she alone who should feel guilty and ashamed,” he said.

Leifer was acquitted of all five charges relating to Ms Meyer, plus another three charges of indecent assault and one of rape that related to Ms Erlich.

Ms Meyer, who says she still struggles with the non-guilty verdicts in relation to the alleged abuse against her, stood side-by-side with her sisters in court, and also outside the building as they faced the media.

Ms Meyer said she felt a “huge intake of relief in the courtroom”.

“Our expectations were so low because female perpetrators are so under-reported. We just felt very grateful that we actually felt validated in that moment. It was almost unbelievable at the same time,” she said.

Asked if she believed Leifer was still a threat to children after Judge Gamble said her risk of reoffending was negligible, Ms Meyer said she thought she was.

“That statement actually scared us. She has shown no remorse the entire process. I do not believe for a minute that she would not reoffend if she had the opportunity to.”

Earlier, Ms Meyer recounted a timeline of Leifer’s flight from justice in 2008, saying it had been 15 years since she has been “aided and abetted” to flee Melbourne and escape justice.

“(It’s been) 12 years since we went into the police station and broke through the walls of silence in our community and found a choice we didn’t know we had,” she said.

“(It has been) six years since we stood in front of the world and fought for justice, reaching the highest levels of government in Australia and Israel.”

Leifer was sent to Israel from Australia in 2008 by the school board after it learned of allegations against her. Members of the Adass Israel school board gathered at the home of businessman Izzy Herzog on March 5, 2008, after they discovered Leifer was accused of abusing at least nine separate victims.

Present were Yitzhok Benedikt and Mark Ernst, barrister Norman Rosenbaum (now deceased), forensic psychologist Vicki Gordon and teacher Sharon Bromberg. Instead of reporting the allegations to police, they bought Leifer a ticket to Israel and she fled the country at 1.20am the following morning – an act which former Supreme Court justice Jack Rush described as “deplorable”.

During her time in Israel, Leifer was jailed and placed under house arrest but she repeatedly delayed her extradition, claiming she was mentally unfit for trial.

Judge Gamble condemned her for exaggerating or “intensifying” her adjustment disorder, saying she was “personally responsible for delaying the proceedings and extending her time under house arrest.

Leifer was finally returned to Melbourne in January 2020, after repeated attempts to delay extradition proceedings.

In June this year, Victoria Police backflipped on a previous decision and reopened its investigation into the former school board for its role in helping ­ Leifer flee ­Australia.

As Ms Erlich said after the sentence: “Trauma from sexual abuse is a lifelong sentence.

“In that courtroom today I felt the pain of my younger self that went through that abuse.

“While no amount of years will ever be sufficient, we are so relieved that Malka Leifer is now in prison for 15 years and cannot prey on anyone else.”