Published: 10 March 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
The closing addresses have begun in the trial of Malka Leifer, the former Adass Israel principal charged with abusing her students.
Using pretend love and concern, former ultra-Orthodox Jewish principal Malka Leifer groomed and sexually abused three young students for her own gratification, jurors have been told.
Leifer, 56, is facing 27 charges over the alleged abuse of Melbourne sisters Nicole Meyer, Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper when she was head of religion and principal of the Adass Israel School in the city's eastern suburbs between 2003 and 2007.
Leifer, a mother of eight, has pleaded not guilty and is standing trial in the Victorian County Court.
Prosecutor Justin Lewis closed the Crown case on Thursday after a month of evidence.
"These three sisters had a miserable home life and as far as the accused was concerned, they were ripe for the picking," he said. "There's no mystery in any of them speaking highly of her - they were getting love and attention from one of the most revered and respected people they knew."
He said even if the young women didn't understand the sexual nature of what was being done to them, because of their highly sheltered upbringing, they understood what they thought was her love. That's why the offending went on for long before any complaint was made, Mr Lewis said.
He told jurors Leifer had manipulated the young women's emotions while she abused them for her own sexual gratification.
"You have more than enough evidence to convict the accused on the charges before you ... and I ask you to do so," he said.
He told jurors to consider the context in which the complaints were made by each of the three women.
In each alleged incident Leifer started with lesser acts, was able to observe the reaction of the women and increased the seriousness of the acts, he said.
Mr Lewis said one incident allegedly occurred when Leifer kept Ms Erlich back from a school excursion to talk to her before abusing her during the afternoon.
When excursion buses returned at 4pm, Mr Lewis said, a friend commented to Ms Erlich that she was jealous she got to spend more time with Leifer.
It's alleged Leifer also abused Ms Erlich and Ms Meyer when they shared a room on a school camp, and that she raped Ms Meyer in the lead up to her wedding, telling her that it would help her on her wedding night.
Ms Lewis said Ms Meyer described Leifer as "very frenzied" during one alleged incident of abuse.
In relation to offending against Ms Erlich, he said Leifer's confidence in getting away with what she was doing would increase.
In turn, Ms Erlich became more used to what was happening. "It was simply, for her, the way things were," he said.
The three women were raised in the ultra-Orthodox community and had little contact with the world outside, with members of the opposite sex, or any sex education, jurors have heard.
Ms Sapper first outlined allegations of abuse against Leifer to a counsellor in March 2008, when she said Leifer didn't listen when she asked her to stop.
"She even asked me if I was enjoying it and when I said 'no I don't like it' she said I would never be able to give a man pleasure," she said.
Ms Meyer said abuse against her began when she was receiving private lessons from Leifer at school on Sundays.
She told a medical expert in 2014 that she had not previously experienced any physical touch by teachers, but Leifer had made it seem as if it was OK.
Leifer barrister Ian Hill KC used his closing address on Thursday to accuse Ms Sapper of lying in her evidence.
He said she gave inconsistent evidence about the location of alleged abuse, made speeches instead of answering questions, and roped Leifer into answers where questions had nothing to do with his client.
"Did she get caught out telling blatant lies? The answer is yes," he said.
He also suggested "something has gone very wrong in these girls' lives at home" when pointing jurors to Ms Meyer's evidence about it being odd that Leifer would touch girls on the back or arms to guide them, or feeling uncomfortable about hugs from her father.
"That's just not what you might think is a normal response," he said.
Allegations against Leifer were first aired in 2008 when Ms Erlich spoke to social worker Chana Rabinowitz.
Mr Hill suggested the "unfortunate narrative" against his client came from innocent beginnings, noting Ms Erlich's former husband gave evidence that he overheard his then-wife speaking to her sister about Ms Rabinowitz taking comments out of proportion.
Mr Hill suggested that account "grew like wildfire" into a story that varied over the years, where truth was lost in "false accounts and hardened into false imaginations and false realities of sexual abuse and rape".
Closing addresses continue today.
Illustration: Malka Leifer in court (Anita Lester)
