Alleged paedophile principal Malka Leifer complained to a friend about her “unfair” sacking, telling her “I did nothing wrong”, a court has heard.
Ms Leifer, 56, is facing trial in the Victorian County Court after three sisters accused her of sexual abuse while she was principal at Adass Israel School in Melbourne’s southeast.
She has pleaded not guilty to 29 charges, including rape, sexual penetration of a child aged 16 or 17 and indecent assault, which allegedly occurred between 2003 and 2007.
The sisters, Nicole Meyer, Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper, have each given NCA NewsWire permission to be named.
The Israeli mother of eight, who first moved to Australia in 2001 to take a teaching position at the school, has denied she did anything wrong.
“She had a proper and professional interaction with them as students,” her barrister Ian Hill KC previously told the jury.
On Tuesday, Esther Speigleman, the former head of general studies at Adass Israel School, took to the witness stand and told the jury she had many interactions with Ms Leifer as a colleague and friend.
She agreed she thought of Ms Leifer as a “devoted and hardworking principal” and said she spoke to her two days after she was stood down by the school board.
The jury heard Ms Leifer told her she felt what was happening was “unfair”, saying “I did nothing wrong”.
The court previously heard Ms Leifer left the school in March 2008 after a social worker in Israel, Chana Rabinowitz, allegedly contacted the school, who then referred the matter to police.
The jury was told Ms Rabinowitz had begun having counselling sessions with Dassi Erlich the year before, who disclosed that she had allegedly been sexually abused.
“She (Dassi Erlich) told her she was so naive, she had no idea what was happening at the time,” prosecutor Justin Lewis alleged.
On Monday, the court heard from Ms Erlich’s ex-husband, Joshua Erlich, who said he overheard his ex-partner on the phone with Ms Meyer in January 2008.
“She was saying she’s spoken to Rabinowitz; she had to disclose something about Ms Leifer,” he said.
“Ms Rabinowitz was taken aback and asking her more questions.
“She doesn’t understand why Rabinowitz is making a big deal about it and blowing it up out of proportion.”
Prosecutors have alleged the ultra-Orthodox principal took advantage of the sisters’ “vulnerable” home lives and their strict cultural upbringing.
She would allegedly tell each girl she “loved” them and explained the abuse as “help” for their wedding night.
But Mr Lewis told the jury the evidence would allegedly show she had a “tendency” to have a sexual interest in girls.
“The case is, we submit, she has a tendency to have a sexual interest in girls when they were teenage students and later when they worked at the school,” he alleged.
“She would (allegedly) take advantage of their vulnerability and her position of authority.”
The trial, before Judge Mark Gamble, continues.
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