Israeli rabbi withdraws support for accused child sex abuser Malka Leifer

An Israeli rabbi has withdrawn his support for a former Melbourne school principal who is accused of child sex abuse to be released on house arrest under his supervision.

Victorian police are seeking the extradition of Malka Leifer, 54, to Australia to face 74 charges of child sexual abuse. She was arrested in Israel in February.

Leifer is the former principal of the ultra-Orthodox Adass girls’ school in Elsternwick in Melbourne’s south-east.

Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman had offered to take care of Leifer if she was granted home detention by Israel’s Supreme Court.

“Last night, I notified the courts that I am completely withdrawing my involvement in the case of Malka Leifer, and my recommendation that she be placed under house arrest with my supervision,” Rabbi Grossman said in a statement released on Monday.

Read the story in the Sydney Morning Herald.