Jewish centres probed by abuse inquiry
Sky News/AAP
2 February 2015
Public hearings into the response of Jewish community leaders to allegations of child sexual abuse are underway in Melbourne.
Emotions are expected to run high as the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hears from victims about abuse in parts of the Melbourne and Sydney Jewish communities, counsel assisting Maria Gerace said in her opening statement on Monday.
Four victims will be among those who give evidence about abuse by three convicted perpetrators in Melbourne and Sydney.
'The commission will examine when Yeshivah Melbourne and Yeshiva Bondi first came to know of allegations of abuse by David Cyprys, Rabbi David Kramer and Daniel 'Gug' Hayman and the response of leaders and management to that information,' Ms Gerace told the public hearing.
She described Cyprys, who was jailed in 2013 for abusing nine boys, as a serial abuser of children.
Two of his victims, Manny Waks and a witness known as AVA, will present evidence.
Rabbi Kramer was also convicted of offences against multiple victims in the early 1990s.
He was a teacher at the Melbourne Yeshivah Centre primary school.
The response to abuse allegations about Hayman at Yeshiva Bondi will also be considered.
Ms Gerace said one witness, known as AVB, was 14 when he was abused by the then 24-year-old Hayman at a youth camp.
The hearings are expected to run for two weeks and include evidence from 17 victims and witnesses.
Originally published at Sky News.