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.
Leifer, a mother of eight, was found guilty by a jury in April of 18 charges including rape and indecent assault against two sisters – Elly Sapper and Dassi Erlich – who were former students of Adass Israel School. After a six-week trial, she was cleared of all charges relating to a third sister, Nicole Meyer.
The sisters have granted The Age permission to use their names.
Lewis on Thursday said Leifer, 56, was able to delay her extradition from Israel for years by firstly feigning mental illness, sometimes in near catatonic states, which she claimed prevented her from being sent to Australia. She then appealed against decisions made by several Israeli legal and medical panels, which found her condition was faked.
“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.
Read the article by David Estcourt in The Age.