The former headmistress of a Melbourne school who was jailed for raping two of her students has allegedly been caught on camera sexually assaulting a younger inmate.
Malka Leifer, 58, ran the Adass Israel School in Elsternwick, which caters to the city’s Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, but fled to Israel in 2008 after the allegations against her first arose.
Following a lengthy process to extradite her to Australia to stand trial, she was jailed for 15 years in 2023 for the rape and indecent assault of Melbourne sisters Nicole Meyer, Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper.
Leifer has since been serving her sentence at the maximum-security Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, in the outer Melbourne suburb of Deer Park.
The 58-year-old was sent to solitary confinement at the facility after she allegedly sexually assaulted a younger inmate.
The incident, which allegedly occurred in late July, happened in full view of ‘CCTV cameras’, a source told news.com.au.
‘There was camera footage of it in the hallway of the Murray Unit,’ they said.
The source alleged the victim was a young Aboriginal woman in her 20s who had been transferred to the Murray Unit, which is where inmates are segregated for their own protection.
Malka Leifer, 58, allegedly sexually assaulted a young inmate, with the alleged incident caught on CCTV
The alleged incident happened in the Murray Unit at the maximum security Dame Phyllis Frost Centre (pictured)
It comes after reports Leifer had allegedly kissed troubled conwoman Samantha Azzopardi while both were inside the protection unit at the facility.
Azzopardi, 36, is serving a two-year jail sentence for posing as a sex-trafficked teenager to gain money from her victims.
An inmate who shared a cell with Azzopardi claimed the pair had been writing each other notes and even shared a kiss in front of guards and prisoners.
Leifer, who is a mother of eight, was restricted from mixing with other inmates and is confined to a small cell for 23 hours a day.
She is given the option of a 20-minute visit to the lounge room or airing yard each day.
Despite the strict conditions, Leifer has gained some perks other prisoners have not received while being held in the protective unit.
The perks include a microwave in her room, cooking equipment, special orders every Thursday, and is also allowed to make challah – a special bread often baked for the Jewish Sabbath observed every Saturday.
Leifer targeted sisters Nicole Meyer, Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper between 2004 and 2007 when they were students and later in their first year as student teachers.
Leifer was jailed for 15 years for the rape and indecent assault of Melbourne sisters Elly Sapper, Nicole Meyer and Dassi Erlich (pictured left to right)
The offending occurred while the headmistress was aged between 37 and 41 while Ms Erlich was aged between 16 and 19 and Ms Sapper aged 17 and 18.
The sisters previously welcomed the sentence but said it would never be enough.
‘The ruling of 15 years recognises the harm and pain that Malka Leifer caused each one of us to suffer over so many years,’ Ms Sapper said.
‘While no amount of years will ever be sufficient, we are relieved that Leifer is now in prison for 15 years and cannot prey on anyone else.’
The sisters campaigned for years to bring Leifer to justice, and Ms Erlich said it was because they had not given up that they were successful.
‘While we know the onus of fighting for justice should not be up to survivors, this fight was never just for us,’ she said.
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Disturbing CCTV footage captured headmistress allegedly commit vile act against younger inmate after she was jailed for raping her students