Malka Leifer’s secret 1.20am flight from justice

Jewish ultra-orthodox leaders didn’t go straight to Victoria Police, instead they acted quickly to send the school principal to Israel.

Malka Leifer in 2006. After fleeing to Israel in 2008, she did not return to Australia for 13 years.

Board members of an ultra-­orthodox Jewish school, a teacher, a forensic psychologist and a barrister convened an urgent meeting in the home of late businessman and elder Izzy Herzog on March 5, 2008.

They were all connected to the Adass Israel School, in Elsternwick in Melbourne’s southeast.

Herzog was joined by school board members Yitzhok Benedikt and Mark Ernst, barrister Norman Rosenbaum (now deceased), forensic psychologist Vicki Gordon and teacher Sharon Bromberg.

Five days earlier, at least some of them knew Malka Leifer, the school’s principal and respected authority figure, had ben accused of sexually abusing at least one of her students.

By March 5, they all knew there could be at least nine victims.

They had to act, and protect the community.

Instead of reporting the information to police, they told Leifer to leave the country and paid for her ticket.

A trusted travel agent, Tammy Koniarski, was called between 9pm and 10pm that night and told “people were required to travel to Israel urgently”.

Leifer and four of her children left the country at 1.20am on March 6, bound for Israel – the country from which she had been recruited eight years earlier – via Hong Kong.

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

“The allegations considered at the meeting at the home of Mr Herzog on Wednesday, 5 March, were allegations of serious criminal conduct by Leifer, yet police were not advised or consulted as to the appropriateness of facilitating Leifer’s departure from this jurisdiction in the face of such serious allegations,” he said.

In conclusion, Justice Rush said: “Leifer departed Australia in circumstances where representatives of the board appreciated there was a case for her to answer.”

“At the time of her departure, the president of the board, Mr Benedikt, was aware of at least eight separate allegations of sexual misconduct involving Leifer and girls at the school, in addition to the initial complaint,” he said.

“The allegations amounted to Leifer being a serial sexual abuser. The failure of the board to report the allegations to police prior to ­arranging Leifer’s urgent departure is deplorable.”

Malka Leifer boarding a plane back to Melbourne from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv to Melbourne, via Frankfurt. Picture: Ynet News.

The international legal saga came to dramatic conclusion about 4pm on Monday when a County Court jury found Leifer guilty of 10 charges relating to Ms Erlich including rape, indecent assault and sexual penetration of a 16- or 17-year-old.

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.

The jury found her not guilty of all charges relating to Ms Meyer.

Details about Leifer’s extradition from Israel to Australia in 2021 are only now allowed to be published after a suppression order that limited media from referring to them expired with the delivery of the verdicts on Monday.

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

It follows the verdict of a 12-­person jury in Leifer’s criminal trial at Victoria’s County Court to find her guilty on 18 counts of sex abuse and not guilty on a further nine charges.

The sisters first went to police in 2011 to make statements about their treatment at the hands of Leifer. Following their reports, an extradition request was issued in 2013 and adopted by Israel in 2014 when Leifer was arrested. She was wanted then on 74 charges of child sex abuse in Australia, and after she was detained until 2021, she was at various times in jail and bailed.

In 2018, she was caught on camera living a normal life when she claimed she was unable to face an Israeli court because of severe ­anxiety and panic attacks.

After the country’s top court threw out her final extradition appeal, Israeli Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn signed the extradition order on December 16, 2020.

A translated tweet from ­Hebrew posted by Mr Nissenkorn at the time said: “After many years, after a despicable attempt to pretend to be mentally ill and in light of the ruling of the Supreme Court, it is our moral duty to allow Leifer to be prosecuted.”

Leifer was then put on a plane to Melbourne, where she was met by a female Victoria Police officer at Tel Aviv who took her into custody on January 25, 2020.

Silent and with her head in her hands, Leifer faced her first hearing at the Melbourne Magistrate’s Court days later and, decades after she allegedly abused the three sisters, she ultimately faced a criminal trial on 27 charges, which started in the County Court on February 8.

The charges included 11 counts of rape, 10 counts of indecent assault, three counts of sexual penetration of a 16- or 17-year-old and three counts of indecent act with a 16- or 17-year-old.

The sisters alleged the acts took place at a school camp, in a school office, at the library and at her home between 2003 and 2007.

The trial took place over about five weeks, with evidence and cross-examination of Ms Meyer, Ms Erlich and Ms Sapper conducted in closed court over two weeks.

In Victoria, it is a crime to identify victims and survivors of sexual assault unless they give permission for media and others to do so.

 

The law is designed, according to Victoria’s Department of Justice, to protect their identities and encourage others to report and prosecute sexual offending.

Ms Erlich and her sisters identified themselves as Leifer’s victim’s years ago, and spearheaded the campaign to extradite her.

Because of that law, The Australian and other members of the media could not attend the hearings in which the sisters gave evidence, despite their public campaign to return the woman they say abused them to Melbourne and having given permission to identify them.

The crown relied heavily on their evidence to prove their case, because as prosecutor Justin Lewis said in his closing remarks, sexual offending typically takes place “behind closed doors, away from prying eyes and potential witnesses”.

Details that can be reported of the sisters’ shocking tales have been gleaned from these remarks and evidence of other witnesses.

Reviewing the evidence for the jury, Mr Lewis said in 2006 Leifer raped Ms Meyer in her office in what the latter described as a “very frenzied” way.

At another time, Leifer “molested (Ms Meyer) with one hand while giving a baby a bottle with another”, he said.

Ms Erlich said on one occasion during “private lessons” – supposed to be about teaching morals and values of the community – at Leifer’s home in 2004, Leifer was touching her breasts before they were interrupted by “footsteps”.

And in 2007 on the night of a school play, Ms Leifer came into Ms Sapper’s dressing room, blocked the door and started kissing her.

Each sister corrected their initial statements, and Mr Lewis acknowledged they made some mistakes in their recollection but he denied this detracted from their credibility, as defence barrister Ian Hill KC said in his closing remarks.

Instead, Mr Lewis said the sisters did their “level best” to recall traumatic events that took place about two decades ago.

“These sisters had a miserable home life and so far that the accused was concerned, they were ripe for the picking,” he said. “They were receiving apparent love and attention from one of the most ­revered … people they knew.”

When asked if any other alleged victims‘ accusations were being investigated, a spokesman for Victoria Police told The Australian on March 14 “there are no active criminal investigations”.