Mp Michael Danby Unwittingly Helped Jewish Principal Later Accused of Molesting Children Get Her Visa, Court Told

By Shannon Deery
Herald Sun
May 7, 2015

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/mp-michael-danby-unwittingly-helped-jewish-principal-later-accused-of-molesting-children-get-her-visa-court-told/story-fni0fee2-1227343156438

Adass Israel School is located in a heritage part of Elsternwick.

Federal member for Melbourne Ports Michael Danby. Picture: Supplied

FEDERAL Labor MP Michael Danby helped an ultra orthodox Jewish principal accused of molesting a string of students secure a visa to work in Australia, a court has heard.

Two letters written by the Melbourne Ports MP in support of Malka Leifer were today tendered in a Supreme Court trial against the former principal and Elsternwick’s Adass Israel School.

However, Mr Danby, who was boarding a flight to Melbourne from the Ukraine today, said if the allegations against Mrs Leifer were true she should face criminal charges.

“Child abuse is a pernicious evil. Anyone found responsible should face the full consequences of the law,” he said.

The civil action has been brought by a former student, in her 20s, who says she was molested by Mrs Leifer up to three times a week over several years.

The woman said she and two of her sisters were preyed upon by the respected leader after she became aware of their troubled home life and offered them private religious tuition.

All three sisters have told the court they were routinely abused by Mrs Lefier at the school, her home and on school camps.

In explosive allegations it was alleged members of the ultra orthodox community threatened the sisters’s oldest sibling with octracism if the civil sex abuse claim against Mrs Leifer wasn’t dropped.

The woman was harassed and pressured shortly before her death from a heart attack, the court heard.

“They threatened her with her job, and her reputation and her children’s marriage prospects,” the woman’s sister, and the claimant in the civil matter said.

The woman told her Supreme Court trial today Mrs Leifer assaulted her between two and three times a week while she was a student.

The abuse, at arms Lefier’s home, at the school and at school camps, continued after she started teaching at the school.

The court heard the woman started suffering flashbacks, nightmares and suicidal thoughts because of the abuse.

She reported the abuse to a counsellor in 2008 just days before Mrs Leifer returned to Israel with her eight children.

A police complaint was first made in 2011.

The trial has heard Mrs Lefier, who is not defending the action against her, also abused two of the woman’s sisters and a string of other students.

The woman said she first approached her under the guise of wanting to talk to her about her own troubled upbringing.

She said she came from an abusive home and Mrs Leifer had offered to counsel her.

It is the first time the allegations have been aired publicly.

The woman earlier said she was too fearful to complain about the abuse because of the power the former principal wielded in the ultra-orthodox community.

“She was seen as the head of the school and the whole community looked up to her and basically idolised her,” she said.

“She was seen as someone who was holier than holy,” she said.

The plaintiff said she had complete trust in Ms Leifer and had felt “special” after the principal offered to give her private tuition.

She said she was told not to disclose the tuition to other students and said Mrs Leifer would take her out of class to abuse her at her home.

“I remember her being very scared her husband would come home and find us there. I remember her locking the doors.

“She I remember wondering if she realised what she was doing.

“She would tell me that she loved me and that she really cared for me.

“She would tell me it was her way of telling me she loved me.”

The Supreme Court heard that in line with strict orthodox beliefs the girl had never watched TV, listened to the radio, used the internet or read a newspaper.

She was segregated from males outside of her immediate family and had no sex education.

She said she believed other teachers knew about the abuse.

“She liked to hug me like a baby, and rock me,” she said.

“She said I should consider her like a mother who loved me, and that I was special.”

It is also alleged school officials failed to report allegations of abuse to police but instead allowed Ms Leifer to flee to Israel with her family just days after allegations were levelled at her in 2008.

She is currently under house arrest in Israel where extradition proceedings at the request of Victoria Police have started in an attempt to have her returned to Melbourne to face criminal charges.

It is understood Ms Leifer could face dozens of charges of indecent assault and rape.

The trial continues.