- Tiffany Turnbull and Tom Husden
- BBC News, Sydney
Israel extradited Malka Leifer to Australia in 2021
A former school principal who holds Israeli citizenship has been found guilty of sexually assaulting two teenage students at an ultra-Orthodox school for Jewish girls in Australia.
A Melbourne jury found that Malka Leifer raped and indecently assaulted sisters Dacy Ehrlich and Ellie Saber between 2003 and 2007.
But she was found not guilty of abusing the third sister, Nicole Meyer.
Leifer, 56, has pleaded not guilty to more than two dozen charges and spent years fighting the idea of being included in an extradition treaty from Israel.
But in 2021, an Israeli judge ordered her extradition to Australia.
The six-week trial in Victoria County Court heard evidence Leifer was a respected figure at Adass Israel School in Melbourne, where the three sisters were students.
They said they were abused by Leifer in closed classrooms at the school, at school camps, and at the principal’s house.
They also said that the abuse continued after they graduated and returned to school as trainee teachers.
“When we look at the journey that it took to prosecute her, and everything that happened in Israel, it was so unbelievable that we got to this point of, ‘She’s guilty, she’s guilty; It cannot be condoned, she is guilty,” Ms. Ehrlich told reporters outside Victoria County Court, flanked by her sisters.
image copyright EPA
(L to R) Nicole Meyer, Ellie Saber and Dassie Ehrlich arrive at the District Court of Victoria in Melbourne
Attorney General Justin Lewis said Leifer showed “a penchant for sexual interest in girls” and said she took advantage of her position, as well as the sisters’ “vulnerability and ignorance in sexual matters”.
He said the teens at the time had little understanding of gender because of their upbringing, which centered around their religion and their ultra-conservative Jewish community.
“Knowing they were neglected at home, she pretended to love them and told them she was helping them,” Mr Lewis explained.
But Leifer’s defense attorney, Ian Hill, argued the allegations were false and questioned the witnesses’ credibility. Leifer’s legal team did not call any defense witnesses – including Leifer herself.
They also claimed that Leifer was at a disadvantage to defend herself against the charges, in part because of the time that had elapsed.
Leifer fled to Israel in 2008 after charges were brought against her.
Leifer, a mother of eight, was arrested at Australia’s request in 2014, but two years later an Israeli court halted her extradition, ruling her mentally unfit to stand trial.
But undercover private investigators later filmed her shopping and depositing a check in a bank, prompting the Israeli authorities to investigate and re-arrest her in February of 2018. The Israeli judge, who ordered her extradition in 2021, said she was “impersonating a person.” He suffers from a mental illness.”
The jury heard limited evidence about her travel to and extradition to Israel, but after nearly two weeks of deliberation, Leifer was found guilty of 18 counts related to Ms. Ehrlich and Ms. Saber.
They acquitted her of nine counts – five involving Mrs. Meyer and several counts relating to Ms. Ehrlich.
Leifer will be judged at a later date.