Community rocked by fresh child abuse case
ONE of Australia’s most prominent Jewish communal groups is embroiled in a fresh child sex abuse scandal, with news this week that a former mentor at the organisation will front court on charges relating to alleged child sex offences.
ONE of Australia’s most prominent Jewish communal groups is embroiled in a fresh child sex abuse scandal, with news this week that a former mentor at the organisation will front court on charges relating to alleged child sex offences.
The man, believed to be in his early 20s when he committed the alleged offences more than a decade ago, has been ordered to stand trial on July 15 next year on 27 charges, including indecent acts with a child under 16, sex with a minor and an indecent act in the presence of a child under 16.
The name of the organisation, the alleged victims and the accused have all been suppressed by the County Court.
The AJN can report that some of the complainants, believed to be Jewish girls, were in the man’s care at the time of the alleged abuses, but it is understood the accused himself is not Jewish.
Some of the alleged incidents are believed to have taken place on an overseas trip.
The news comes just weeks after child molester and former Yeshivah College (Melbourne) teacher David Kramer was ordered back to Australia by a US judge to face charges of child sexual abuse, while accused child rapist and former employee of the same school David Cyprys is set to stand trial next year.
The Office of the Public Prosecutor and Victoria Police declined to comment, saying that the matter was before the court.
Victim advocate Manny Waks, who recently made a submission to the Royal Commission into the handling of child sex abuse cases by religious organisations, said the Jewish community in Melbourne was facing a crisis.
“It’s devastating to learn of the additional serious allegations of child sexual abuse and cover-up within our community,” Waks said.
“These new revelations highlight that instances of child sexual abuse are not unique to one segment within our community.”
Meanwhile, Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Danny Lamm and executive director Peter Wertheim met with Yeshivah College principal Rabbi Yehoshua Smukler, Yeshivah shul’s Rabbi Zvi Telsner, general manager of the Yeshivah Centre Nechama Bendet and executive members of the centre’s committee of management, Chaim New and Michael Goldhirsch, to discuss their handling of the court cases involving Cyprys and Kramer.
“We received a comprehensive briefing about how Yeshivah is working closely with Victoria Police in relation to the two alleged cases of child sexual abuse from the 1980s and ’90s that are currently before the courts,” Lamm said.
“We were also given an exhaustive explanation of the policies and practices that have been developed by the college to avoid abuse and to ensure that allegations of abuse are dealt with promptly and reported to the relevant law enforcement and welfare authorities.”
Lamm said the full extent to which organisations or individuals had knowingly protected alleged abusers from prosecution would come out in the course of the public inquiry.
“Once these have been dealt with by the courts and the Royal Commission, we will have a better idea of the extent of the problem in the community. In the meantime, there does not appear to be any basis for concluding that these problems are endemic throughout the Jewish community, although it is possible that other organisations might yet come under scrutiny.”
ADAM KAMIEN
The latest case comes just weeks after child molester David Kramer (pictured) was ordered back to Australia by a US judge to face charges of child sexual abuse.
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