Ex-principal for sentencing on August 24
Malka Leifer will face Judge Mark Gamble by video link on the morning of Thursday, August 24 to learn of her sentence.
Malka Leifer will be sentenced in the County Court of Victoria on August 24, Judge Mark Gamble told a court hearing last Friday.
The former Adass Israel School principal heard the date of her sentencing as she followed the hearing by video link from the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre women’s prison in Melbourne.
Leifer will face Judge Gamble by video link on Thursday, August 24 at 9.30am to learn of her sentence, after both the prosecution and her defence consented to excusing her from personal attendance in court on the day of the sentencing.
In April, a County Court jury found Leifer, 56, guilty of 18 out of the 27 charges against her, relating to Dassi Erlich, now 35, and her sister, Elly Sapper, now 34. These included rape, indecent assault and sexual penetration of a child aged 16 or 17 – which occurred in the years 2004 to 2007 while Leifer was principal at the school.
Judge Mark Gamble indicated that in formulating his sentence, he would take into account a number of factors, including affidavits and other documents from Israeli courts relating to Leifer’s 52 days in Israeli custody in 2014 and a further 608 days she spent in home detention.
He will also weigh contentions put to him by Crown Prosecutor Justin Lewis that Leifer had feigned mental illness in a bid to avoid extradition to Australia.
Lewis also observed that Leifer was “respected” and “feared” by her students, which helped facilitate her offending.
Addressing Friday’s hearing, Leifer’s barrister Ian Hill, KC, emphasised the specifics of her Israeli home detention, the fact that she was not living with her husband, and was required to wear a tracking ankle bracelet.
Spirited out of Australia in 2008 after reports of child sexual abuse began to circulate, Leifer was extradited to Australia in 2021.
Lewis told Judge Gamble that he should consider placing less weight on Leifer’s 600 days in home detention in Israel, arguing the ex-principal had feigned mental illness to avoid extradition.
Police have reopened an investigation into the circumstances under which her exit from Australia was facilitated in 2008.
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