Melbourne [Australia], August 25: A former principal who abused two sisters at an Australian ultra-Orthodox Jewish school and spent years fighting extradition from Israel has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Malka Leifer, 56, must serve at least 11 years and six months of the sentence before she can be considered for early release. As soon as she is released from a Victoria state prison, she will likely be deported to her native Israel.
Handing down the sentence on Thursday, Melbourne Judge Mark Gamble denounced Leifer for abusing her position within the city's ultra-Orthodox community and said her "insidious offending" had scarred the sisters for life.
Gamble described her as a "serious sexual offender" who had shown a "callous indifference" to the suffering of her victims. The sentence came after Leifer was found guilty of 18 charges of sexual assault against sisters Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper and ends the sisters' decade-long quest for justice. A jury acquitted Leifer of assaulting a third sister, Nicole Meyer.
The offences spanned from 2004 to 2007 when Leifer was in charge of the Addass Israel School in Melbourne and the two sisters were teenagers.
Source: Qatar Tribune
