Leifer faked mental illness and should be denied sentencing discount, court told

Prosecutor says Malk Leifer’s long attempt to avoid justice by feigning illness should disqualify her.

Malka Leifer should be denied a significant sentencing discount for her time in prison and under house arrest in Israel because she was feigning mental illness to frustrate her prosecution, a court has heard.

Prosecutor Justin Lewis also told County Court judge Mark Gamble that attempts by the former principal of a Jewish ultra-Orthodox school to thwart extradition to Australia may have been intended at preventing her trial for sexual crimes entirely.

“The accused has somehow strung out the proceedings for whatever purpose in order ... to delay the extradition, or indeed, potentially to eventually defeat the prosecution because of the delay itself,” Lewis argued during a pre-sentence hearing.

In total, the court heard, Leifer has spent more than 2600 days in various forms of detention between Australia and Israel. Of that, 608 days were under house arrest in Israel, and 51 days were in custody there in 2014.

Leifer was charged by Victorian police in 2012 – while she was in Israel – and extradition hearings began in 2014.

Leifer was convicted of 18 counts of sexual abuse and rape of sisters Elly Sapper and Dassi Erlich, while she was principal of Melbourne’s Adass Israel School in the early 2000s.

Earlier this month, police reopened their investigation into board members from the ultra-Orthodox school who in 2008 may have assisted Leifer fleeing to Israel.

READ MORE

Leifer faked mental illness and should be denied sentencing discount, prosecutor says (Sydney Morning Herald)