Former school principal Malka Leifer has been jailed for 15 years over the sexual abuse of two former students.
The 56-year-old must serve at least 11-and-a-half years before she is eligible for parole. The court will consider her already having served 2069 days of that sentence, due to pre-sentence detention in Australia and Israel.
Leifer was convicted in April of 18 offences against sisters Elly Sapper and Dassi Erlich between 2003 and 2007.
Earlier, a court heard Leifer groomed at least one of three sisters before sexually assaulting them.
At the outset of Leifer’s sentencing hearing, Judge Mark Gamble told Victoria’s county court of the sheltered upbringing of Leifer’s three complainants – Ms Erlich, Ms Sapper and Nicola Meyer.
“(They were) ignorant in sexual matters until shortly before they got married. They had no understanding of human anatomy, puberty or sexual relations,” he said.
Judge Gamble said Leifer started giving “private lessons” to Ms Erlich, where she told her she loved her and felt she was a mother to her.
He said Leifer “prepared” the complainant for offending and said he accepted this as “grooming”.
Judge Gamble noted the “delay” of 15 years between the offences taking place and when the trial was held.
He said he would take into account Ms Erlich’s and Ms Sapper’s impact statement statements, which were delivered in court and read aloud by the sisters in June.
Read the article by Angelica Snowden in The Australian.