Convicted sex offender Malka Leifer has reportedly been moved to solitary confinement in an Australian jail after allegedly assaulting a young female inmate.
According to Australian news outlet News.com.au, Leifer, 58, has been “sent to solitary confinement at the facility in Melbourne’s north over an alleged incident involving a younger inmate” that was caught on the prison’s cameras.
After allegations arose of Leifer raping female students while serving as principal of the Adass Israel School in Melbourne, she fled to Israel in 2008. She was ultimately extradited to Australia in 2021 and, two years later, convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexual abuse.
The alleged victim is said to be an Aboriginal woman in her 20s, the Australian outlet reported, and the misconduct in the prison occurred in late July in a unit where inmates are placed for their own protection. She will now be confined alone for nearly the entire day.
In response to an inquiry from News.com.au, an Australian Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on Leifer specifically but said, “All allegations of sexual assault or violence in Victorian prisons are referred to Victoria Police for investigation.”
In 2023, Leifer was found guilty on 18 of 27 charges of sex abuse against sisters Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper. A jury acquitted Leifer of sexually assaulting a third sister, Nicole Meyer. The most serious convictions were for six counts of rape, each carrying a potential maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.
The charges spanned from 2004 to 2007 when Leifer was in charge of the Adass Israel School and the two sisters were teenagers. The school is part of a Jewish community on the outskirts of Melbourne.
Australian police filed charges against her in 2012 and requested her extradition from Israel two years later, sparking a lengthy legal saga.
Leifer claimed that crippling depression had left her catatonic and that she was mentally incapable of standing trial.
The extradition process was suspended until a private investigator secretly filmed Leifer going about her daily chores, apparently uninhibited by the mental illnesses she claimed.
“I guess part of me always wanted to believe there was some remorse, some understanding of her wrongdoing,” Sapper told News.com.au upon the news of Leifer’s alleged misconduct in prison. “Obviously that belief has diminished now, but mostly, I feel defeated and helpless at the knowledge there will be many other young vulnerable girls in the future that she will groom and take advantage of.”
