An Australian court sentenced Malka Leifer on Thursday morning to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting two of her students, sisters Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper, at the school she ran in Melbourne.
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Leifer fled to Israel after the students filed complaints against her. She was extradited to Australia in 2021 following a six-year legal battle.
Sentencing judge Mark Gamble said Leifer abused her position within Melbourne's ultra-orthodox community and her "insidious offending" had scarred the sisters for life. Gamble added that Leifer was a "serious sexual offender" who had shown a "callous indifference" to the suffering of her victims. She will be eligible for parole after 11 years.
According to Australian media reports, the mother of eight burst into tears as the verdict was read out during her video appearance from a Melbourne prison.
Leifer might be released in 2029, as the judge announced he would take into consideration the 1,129 days she spent in detention in Israel, alongside the 940 days she was held in Australia. The Guardian also reported that the judge slightly reduced the intended sentence, taking into account the 608 days Leifer spent under house arrest.
Last April, Leifer was convicted on 18 charges out of the 27 brought against her before the jury. According to the charges, Leifer committed the acts against the two sisters between 2003 and 2007 when they were aged 16 to 19. Leifer was acquitted of all charges related to their older sister, Nicole Meyer. All three sisters attended the court to hear the verdict.
Following complaints from her students, Leifer was suspended from the school in 2008 and fled to Israel. In March 2012, an arrest warrant was issued against her by an Australian court, and extradition proceedings from Israel began in 2014.
Leifer was arrested but then released to house arrest. In 2016, a psychiatrist determined that Leifer was unfit to stand trial. However, the extradition proceedings resumed after private investigators revealed she was feigning her condition.
The case also implicated former United Torah Judaism chairman Yaakov Litzman, who was convicted of breach of trust for trying to prevent Leifer's extradition to Australia.
Litzman was sentenced to eight months of probation and a NIS 3,000 fine as part of a plea deal. He was suspected of helping Leifer avoid extradition to Australia after she claimed she was unfit to stand trial.
Judge Joshua Zimmerman, who handed down the probation sentence for three years in accordance with the plea deal, stated that Litzman's actions "did not cause concrete harm." He added that "this isn't a case of sustained and intensive corruption over years." Following the verdict, Litzman said he respected the judge's decision.