AUSTRALIA/ISRAEL
The Border Mail
Kate Shuttleworth
July 8, 2016
The former principal of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish girls’ school in Melbourne, who fled the country after allegedly sexually abusing her students, has returned to a conservative, religious settlement in Israel a free woman, much to the outrage of her new neighbours.
Malka Leifer, who is Israeli, was released from two years’ house arrest in the ultra-Orthodox Israeli city of Bnei Brak in early June this year and has since moved back to a 3700-strong Jewish community in the West Bank settlement of Immanuel, south-west of Nablus.
Ms Leifer, the former principal of the Adass Israel School in Elsternwick, is wanted by Victoria Police on 74 counts of sexual assault and rape involving 10 girls at the school from 2003.
She fled to Israel with her family in the middle of the night, allegedly with the help of senior members of Melbourne’s secretive Adass community, after accusations of sexual abuse were first raised against her in 2008.
In 2014, Ms Leifer was arrested by Israeli police at the request of Australian authorities. However, she has successfully managed to evade 10 extradition proceedings, with her lawyers consistently arguing she is unwell and unfit to face court.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.