Social worker: Victim account of alleged Malka Leifer abuse left ‘imprint’ on memory

A court has heard of a social worker’s session with one of accused paedophile principal Malka Leifer’s victims.

A picture of Malka Leifer from 2006.

A social worker says accounts of alleged sexual abuse described to her by Dassi Erlich, who says she was assaulted by her former school principal Malka Leifer, left an “imprint” on her memory.

Chana Rabinowitz said Ms Erlich whispered Ms Leifer’s name during a counselling session that took place in Israel in February 2008 after she asked “who hurt her”.

“She was very distraught, she was kind of hunched over into herself and she could only whisper what it was. She was very distraught,” Ms Rabinowitz said in her evidence that was recorded last week and played to the jury on Thursday afternoon.

“(Ms Leifer) would take her (Ms Erlich) in the bedroom, she would undress her and tell her what to do.”

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

Ms Rabinowitz said Ms Erlich told her Ms Leifer raped her and “was touching her all over”.

Ms Leifer denies all 29 offences with which she has been charged, and is facing a jury trial in Victoria’s County Court over claims she sexually assaulted three of her former students.

Her alleged victims, Melbourne sisters Ms Erlich, Elly Sapper and Nic­ole Meyer, have all given The Australian permission to identify them.

Computerised notes of some 12 sessions between the social worker and Ms Erlich were lost because of technical problems, Ms Rabinowitz told the court under cross-examination by Ms Leifer’s barrister, Ian Hill KC.

She denied it was “impossible … to recollect accurately and precisely” what Ms Erlich told her without notes, given the discussions took place about 15 years ago. “Professionally, the things she told me were things that imprinted on my memory very clearly because they were unusual things for a therapist to hear,” Ms Rabinowitz said.

According to part of her police statement read out in court, Ms Rabinowitz said she gained a better idea of what was going on with Ms Erlich, who started counselling in the context of adjusting to marriage and feeling “alone” while in Israel.

“In February 2008 in a particularly emotional session, I finally had a deeper sense of what might be going on for her. I remember vividly asking Dassi who hurt her, that clearly she had been hurt in an abusive manner by someone in her past,” she said. After she discovered the abuse, Ms Rabinowitz asked Ms Erlich’s permission to inform the Adass Israel school in Melbourne, allegedly where some of the offending took place.

Ms Rabinowitz, who worked at the Adass Israel school as a consultant between 2001 and early 2006, said she contacted psychologist Vicki Gordon to inform her of the accusations.

She also said she subsequently spoke with Ms Meyer, who informed Ms Rabinowitz that she had also been allegedly abused by Ms Leifer.