Jewish centres probed by abuse inquiry

Otago Daily Times (New Zealand)
February 02, 2015

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/world/australia/331767/jewish-centres-probed-abuse-inquiry

The child sex abuse royal commission is turning the spotlight on Jewish institutions in Sydney and Melbourne.

A public hearing by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse into Yeshivah Bondi and Yeshivah Melbourne opens today in Melbourne.

It is the first time Jewish institutions have been examined by the commission, which will look at the responses of the two centres to allegations of sex abuse against staff members.

The Yeshivah Centre and the Yeshivah College in Melbourne will be asked how they handled complaints against David Cyprys, David Kramer and Aaron Kestecher.

The commission will also look at how the centre and college in Bondi dealt with allegations of sexual abuse against Daniel Hayman, a former Yeshivah director.

Hayman, 50, pleaded guilty last June to the aggravated indecent assault of a then 14-year-old boy at a Jewish camp south of Sydney in the 1980s.

He was given a 19-month suspended sentence at the Downing Centre Local Court.

The year before in Melbourne Kramer was jailed for three years and four months for molesting four boys between 1989 and 1992.

Cyprys, a former security guard at the Melbourne school, was sent to jail for eight years for numerous assaults on children.

Kestecher, a former youth leader and relief teacher at the Melbourne-based college, was found dead in his home in March last year before he was due to face court on charges of child sexual abuse.

The hearing will be held at the County Court of Victoria in Melbourne and is expected to run for two weeks.