Malka Leifer's victim-survivors react to news of alleged re-offending in prison

News.com.au

20 hours ago

On August 24, 2023, Malka Leifer's victims sat inside a Melbourne courtroom and listened as Judge Mark Gamble sent her to prison for 15 years.
Sisters Nicole Meyer, Elly Sapper and Dassi Erlich had been sexually abused by Leifer over several years while she was headmistress at the Addas Israel School in Elsternwick.
They had waited years — from 2008 until 2021 — for the dual Israeli-Australian citizen to be extradited from Israel to Australia to face justice.
But when justice came, it was tempered by six words that have left them fuming since.
'Mrs Leifer is unlikely to re-offend,' Judge Gamble told the court, citing the unlikely situation that she would ever 'find herself in the same position of authority again'.
But according to prison sources at Melbourne's maximum security women's prison where Leifer is serving her sentence in protective custody, she has allegedly offended again.
News.com.au on Monday exclusively reported that Leifer has been sent to solitary confinement at the facility in Melbourne's north over an alleged incident involving a younger inmate — one that sources say happened in full view of 'CCTV cameras'.
The incident allegedly occurred in late July inside the Murray Unit where inmates are segregated for their own protection.
A source with knowledge of the incident told news.com.au the alleged victim was 'a young woman who was only recently moved to (protection) from the compound'.
'There was camera footage of it in the hallway of the Murray Unit,' the source said.
The alleged victim is believed to be a 'young Koori girl' — an Aboriginal inmate in her 20s.
Leifer, who is a mother of eight children and is 'disliked' in prison because she is 'arrogant and entitled', is now confined to a tiny cell for 23 hours a day where she cannot mix with other inmates.
Nicole told news.com.au the news proves what they have always believed — that Leifer is not remorseful and is not reformed.
She took to TikTok to share a message with her followers.
'Go ahead and see what broke the news this morning,' she said on Monday.
'It doesn't trigger me like some people might think. What it does, it makes me feel incredibly sad that she has (allegedly) hurt another person in prison when the judge literally said she's not going to be a risk to re-offend when she comes out.
'And look at that, she is (allegedly) re-offending in prison ... it is so, so not OK that she is still damaging other people. It is just awful.'
Judge Gamble's full remarks in 2023 included the following comments about Leifer's risk of re-offending.
'This offending occurred in a very specific setting where Mrs Leifer, as a teacher and principal, was entrusted with the care of female high school students and young female student teachers at an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school,' he said.
'It seems most unlikely that she will ever have the opportunity to gain access to girls and
young women in any similar setting again, whether in Australia, Israel or some other country.
'So, I consider that the opportunity for Mrs Leifer to re-offend in this or any similar fashion is therefore negligible, if not non-existent.'
The sisters, who are part of a documentary about Leifer's crimes which is premiering at the Melbourne International Film Festival this week, have previously told news.com.au Leifer would never change.
They said just that after this publication revealed that Leifer, 58, had kissed conwoman Samantha Azzopardi, 36, while the pair were locked up together.
The kiss happened in a public area of the protection unit at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre and an inmate who witnessed it said Azzopardi appeared shocked.
'I just hope the community or members of her family have a deep hard think about reading these stories and maybe, just maybe, start to believe that Malka Leifer did actually abuse us,' Nicole said.
Elly had similar concerns.
'I guess part of me always wanted to believe there was some remorse, some understanding of her wrongdoing. Obviously that belief has diminished now, but mostly, I feel defeated and helpless at the knowledge there will be many other young vulnerable girls in the future that she will groom and take advantage of.'
A Department of Justice spokesperson said they cannot comment on individual prisoners but 'all allegations of sexual assault or violence in Victorian prisons are referred to Victoria Police for investigation'.
Leifer's new life inside solitary confinement will be much different to her previous living conditions.
News.com.au last month reported that the solitary confinement unit is subject to almost daily lockdowns, some of which mean inmates there spend 24 hours a day inside their cells.
A former inmate who spoke to news.com.au about conditions in solitary confinement at the Melbourne prison said there are 'code black' events 'nearly every day' — a code black being a self-harm incident or an attempted suicide.
'The amount of times that medical would be called for a code black is unbelievable,' they said.
A different former inmate, who spent time with Leifer inside the protection unit before being released in March, told news.com.au Leifer was 'a loner' who 'used to sit in her room a lot'.
Leifer's barrister, Ian Hill KC, told a Melbourne court in 2023, prior to her sentencing, that she was 'truly lonely' and 'broken' in prison.
'Leifer was a respected educator, administrator and community member and indeed community leader,' Mr Hill said.
'Today, all these years later, she is a truly lonely, isolated and broken woman held in protective custody in a maximum security prison far from her culture, far from her religion and, significantly, far from her family.
'Publicly she has been disgraced and it can be said fairly that she is suffering worldwide as a result of the publicity that her trial seems to have attracted.'
Leifer will be deported to Israel when she is released from prison, but is not eligible for parole until 2038.