Renewal
'They were completely innocent victims of the predatory behaviour of Mrs Leifer, and it is she and she alone who should feel guilty.'
“Adass principal flees Australia in disgrace,” screamed the front page of The AJN on March 14, 2008.
It has taken a long time – more than 15 years – to get to where we are now. Last Thursday, Judge Mark Gamble sentenced Leifer to 15 years in prison for her sordid crimes, with a non-parole period of 11 and a half years, and taking into account time already spent in custody.
A marathon morning in court saw the judge describe in harrowing detail how then Adass Israel School principal Leifer preyed on sisters Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper and betrayed their trust as she repeatedly sexually abused them. She was found not guilty of charges relating to third sister Nicole Meyer.
Leifer’s sentence is just beginning, but her brave victims have been enduring their own sentence since those fateful years of 2003 to 2007. They were forever changed by what they endured. Fighting for justice on behalf of all child sexual abuse victims, they have borne a burden few of us could imagine and have done so with poise and grace.
To reiterate the words of Judge Gamble, “They were completely innocent victims of the predatory behaviour of Mrs Leifer, and it is she and she alone who should feel guilty.”
In many ways Leifer’s sentencing closes a chapter. But the story is not yet finished. Earlier this year Victoria Police announced it was reopening its investigation into the Adass Israel School board members who helped spirit Leifer to Israel back in 2008.
Faced with grave allegations – 18 of which would one day be proven beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law – those board members, in a serious lack of judgment, made a fateful choice not to protect the abused but their abuser. They must be held accountable for this sorry saga to truly reach its conclusion.
When Leifer’s guilty verdicts were handed down just prior to Pesach, we wrote here of our hope that the feeling of liberation would taste a little sweeter for her victims.
Now, with Rosh Hashanah on the horizon, we hope that its promise of renewal is realised for them too; a renewal free from the burden that Leifer cruelly forced upon them.
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