Published: 25 July 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
As the Leifer trial draws to a close, Velvel Serebryanski has been charged in a separate case with offences dating back to the 1980s.
A man extradited from New York has been charged in a Melbourne court with four sexual abuse offences against a member of the Jewish community in St Kilda in the 1980s.
Velvel Serebryanski, 59, who was arrested in New York in April, was extradited back to Australia on Wednesday and appeared in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, according to a statement by Victorian police.
He was charged with three counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual penetration of a child over 12 and under 16, and been bailed to face court again on September 15.
On Friday, Malka Leifer also faced a Melbourne court for a pre-sentence hearing, in which Justice Mark Gamble set her sentencing date for August 24.
Leifer’s barrister, Ian Hill KC, told the court her time in home detention was punitive, saying she was confined to a space away from her husband and children. Prosecutor Justin Lewis argued Leifer feigned mental illness to avoid extradition from Israel to Australia, so the weight the judge put on her more than 600 days in home detention should be diminished.
A jury convicted Leifer of 18 offences against sisters Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper in April.
Justice Gamble said he expected Leifer's sentence would take him a lengthy amount of time to hand down.
Photo: Melbourne's Yeshiva Centre, where abuse is alleged to have occurred.
