Manny Waks abuser sentenced

Child sexual abuse advocate Manny Waks said his “battle is over” after his abuser Velvel Serebryanski was sentenced to a suspended jail term for sexually assaulting him at the Yeshivah Centre nearly four decades ago.

Serebryanski, 62, was sentenced at the County Court of Victoria last Friday to 22 months imprisonment for sexual penetration of a child aged between 10 and 16, with three months to serve and the balance suspended for two years.

Judge John Kelly declared the three months had already been served through pre-sentence detention. Serebryanski was also sentenced to wholly suspended terms for three charges of indecent assault.

The court heard Serebryanski developed a sexual interest in Waks, who was aged between 10 and 12, and assaulted him on the first night of Shavuot in either 1987 or 1988 at the Yeshivah Centre synagogue.

Judge Kelly described Serebryanski’s actions as “transgressive and predatory” and “an attack on innocence, an attack on childhood”.