A Melbourne court heard last week that Bill Shorten’s Parliamentary Secretary Michael Danby wrote two letters in support of Malka Leifer, a school principal accused of molesting children.
The letters were used by Mrs Leifer to obtain a working visa in Australia which allowed her to work at the Adass Israel School in Melbourne.
Mr Danby did not write one letter but two which suggests he knows Malka Leifer well. A lot of politicians have been caught making the mistake of supporting people they shouldn’t but Mr Danby has a history of writing support letters for crooks and criminals he knows.
Malka Leifer
The current court matter is a civil case were one of Mrs Leifer’s victims is suing Leifer and the School where she was abused.
Mrs Leifer is currently in Israel under house arrest as the Victoria Police have started extradition proceedings to have her returned to Australia to also face criminal proceedings.
“The trial has heard Mrs Leifer, who is not defending the action against her, also abused two of the woman’s sisters and a string of other students.” (Click here to read more)
The School is also not defending the abuse “Adass Israel school will not contest allegations of sexual abuse by its former principal, the Supreme Court of Victoria heard today.”
But “the school will argue that it is not liable for the conduct of Malka Leifer” because she was not employed by the School but was employed by the “congregation” the School says. (Click here to read more)
How the School is avoiding its responsibility is a familiar theme heard daily at the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse currently afoot.
Mr Danby needs to explain exactly why he wrote the two letters of support for Malka Leifer. If the Victoria Police do manage to extradite Mrs Leifer back to Australia for criminal charges the full story might then be revealed whether or not Danby says anything now.
So it's not just the catholic priests.