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Speaker 1: From the newsroom a news still come today.

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Speaker 2: Gooday there, I'm Andrew bucklow Well. Malca Liifer was once

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Speaker 2: the head of an ultra Orthodox school in Melbourne. Now

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Speaker 2: she's serving a prison sentence for sexually abusing her students.

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Speaker 2: But even behind bars, this fifty eight year old woman

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Speaker 2: is making headlines, from whispers of a secret relationship with

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Speaker 2: another high profile inmate to an alleged incident that landed

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Speaker 2: her in solitary confinement. Today we get all the shocking

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Speaker 2: details from the journalist who's been breaking the big stories

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Speaker 2: about Lifa's life inside. I'm joined now by news dot

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Speaker 2: com dot a you senior reporter Rowan Smith. He has

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Speaker 2: broken a number of big stories this year about Malca Liifer.

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Speaker 3: Gooday, row thanks for having me.

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Speaker 2: To begin with, just remind us who Malca is and

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Speaker 2: what exactly she was jailed for.

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Speaker 4: Malkelwifer was the headmistress of the Addas Israel school in

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Speaker 4: the Melbourne However Elston week AT's Jewish religious school in

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Speaker 4: a fairly affluent part of the Eastern suburbs, and she

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Speaker 4: was the principal there. She moved from Israel to Australia

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Speaker 4: and while working there she abused a number of girls,

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Speaker 4: including sisters, who later went to police with their allegations

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Speaker 4: of sexual assault against her. She was facing more than

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Speaker 4: seventy charges from incidents that occurred kind of on school camps,

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Speaker 4: at the campus and in her home. And then I

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Speaker 4: think it was twenty four hours after the first allegation

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Speaker 4: landed she fled in the middle of the night to Israel.

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Speaker 4: That was two thousand and eight and for thirteen years

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Speaker 4: police and her victims fought to have her brought back

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Speaker 4: to Australia to face justice, and that finally happened in

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Speaker 4: twenty twenty one. She went to the County Court in

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Speaker 4: Victoria where two years later she was found guilty of

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Speaker 4: eighteen charges including rape and child's sexual abuse, and she

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Speaker 4: was sentenced to fifteen years in a Melbourne prison.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, this was massive news back in twenty twenty three

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Speaker 2: when she was sentenced. Let's have a listen to that.

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Speaker 5: Former Melbourne school principal Malifa has been sentenced to fifteen

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Speaker 5: years prison for sexually abusing two students in her care.

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Speaker 5: Lifa was sentenced for eighteen sexual offenses dating back two

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Speaker 5: decades when she was in charge of the Adas Israel

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Speaker 5: School in Melbourne. Here's the reaction of the three sisters

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Speaker 5: who came forward to accused Lifer of abusing her position

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Speaker 5: of authority.

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Speaker 6: Today's ruling of fifteen years recognizes the harm and pain

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Speaker 6: that Marchalifer caused each one of us to suffer over

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Speaker 6: so many years. Trauma from sexual abuse is a lifelong sentence,

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Speaker 6: while no amount of years will ever be sufficient. We

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Speaker 6: are so relieved that Malchalalifer is now in prison for

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Speaker 6: fifteen years and cannot pray on anyone else.

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Speaker 2: So ro Lifa is behind bars Victoria's only all female

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Speaker 2: maximum security prison, and back in April, you had a

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Speaker 2: big exclusive story about an alleged relationship she was having

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Speaker 2: in that facility. Tell us more.

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Speaker 3: I did so.

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Speaker 4: I was approached by a former inmate who had spent

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Speaker 4: time in the protection unit at the Dame Phillis Frost Center.

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Speaker 4: She told me that Melcolifer had been close with an

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Speaker 4: inmate named Samantha as a Party. For background, Samantha as

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Speaker 4: a Party is a She's a thirty six year old

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Speaker 4: She's from Campbelltown in Sydney, Southwest, and she made a

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Speaker 4: name for herself kind of all around the world posing

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Speaker 4: as this troubled school girl She did various cons to

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Speaker 4: get money out of different victims. Like one of them,

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Speaker 4: she was in her late twenties and she convinced the

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Speaker 4: school on Sydney's Upper North Shore that she was a

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Speaker 4: thirteen year old girl called Harper Heart, and she was

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Speaker 4: actually quite successful at doing that. She managed to stay

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Speaker 4: in the school for a period of time before she

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Speaker 4: was caught. She got some government handouts and that kind

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Speaker 4: of thing. She had various convictions over the years and

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Speaker 4: she was eventually jailed in Melbourne last year.

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Speaker 7: A Hollywood film worker, a Norwegian backpacker and an artist

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Speaker 7: from Long Island, Samantha as a Party has cooked up

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Speaker 7: some wild personas to trick her victims, later is landing

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Speaker 7: her in jail for two years after she pretended to

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Speaker 7: be a sex trafficked teen to exploit domestic support services

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Speaker 7: in Melbourne.

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Speaker 4: She would end up in a protection unit alongside all

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Speaker 4: these inmates, including Melchal Wafer and the former inmate that

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Speaker 4: I spoke to who was released in March said that

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Speaker 4: on at least one occasion life I had kissed as

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Speaker 4: a party as a party looked shocked when it happened,

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Speaker 4: I was told, But I was also told that the

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Speaker 4: pair were exchanging letters and spending what's of time together,

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Speaker 4: So there's a bit of a gray area in that relationship,

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Speaker 4: but you can spend time in that protection unit together.

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Speaker 4: It's not like a lockdown situation where you're in yourself

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Speaker 4: for twenty three hours a day. They do a lot

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Speaker 4: of mingling. So, yeah, that was a story back in April.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so at the time you spoke to the sisters

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Speaker 2: who were sexually abused by Laifer, what did they have

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Speaker 2: to say about those claims that Lafer was allegedly in

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Speaker 2: a relationship of some kind with Samantha asa Party.

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Speaker 4: So the first thing they said to me, and it's

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Speaker 4: kind of been a recurring theme every time I've spoke

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Speaker 4: to them, is that they were shocked to hear it,

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Speaker 4: but not surprised. One said something like malcal Lifer seeks

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Speaker 4: out vulnerability and builds trust and exploits it. It's what

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Speaker 4: they claim that she did to them, and the fact

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Speaker 4: that as a party has this history of impersonating children

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Speaker 4: like young girls suggests them really emotional instability, which then,

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Speaker 4: in theory, kind of makes her the kind of person.

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Speaker 3: That life would target.

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Speaker 4: The other thing they said that it was clear that

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Speaker 4: she hadn't reformed and that she was not remorsel and

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Speaker 4: that's something that they've believed was the case all along.

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Speaker 2: So earlier this week you had another big exclusive row.

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Speaker 2: You wrote about an alleged incident that took place behind

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Speaker 2: bars back in July involved Malca Life. What can you

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Speaker 2: tell us about this?

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Speaker 4: So I was contacted about a week ago, i'd say,

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Speaker 4: and told that Malca had allegedly sexually assaulted another inmate there.

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Speaker 3: Multiple sources confirmed the incident to me.

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Speaker 4: They said took place in late July, and the alleged

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Speaker 4: victim was in her early twenties. She had just moved

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Speaker 4: into the Protection Unit, which is where vulnerable female prisoners

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Speaker 4: are segregated for their own safety. Ironically, I was told

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Speaker 4: it happened in full view of CCTV cameras in a hallway.

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Speaker 4: And the process is that, just like anything, once is

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Speaker 4: an allegation of assault in prison, it'll be sent to

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Speaker 4: police to investigate.

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Speaker 3: And I'm told that's what happened.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Again, the sisters who are abused by Life responded

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Speaker 2: to that news that you broke this week. Is what

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Speaker 2: one of them, Nicole had to say on TikTok about it.

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Speaker 1: The article about Marchael Lafa that I posted this morning.

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Speaker 1: Go ahead and see what broken the news this morning.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't trigger me unlike some people might think. What

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Speaker 1: it does. It makes me feel incredibly sad that she

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Speaker 1: has hurt another person in prison. When the judge literally

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Speaker 1: says she's not going to be a risk to reoffend

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Speaker 1: when she comes out and look at that she's reoffending

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Speaker 1: in prison. It is so so not okay that she

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Speaker 1: is still damaging other people. It is just awful.

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Speaker 2: Powerful words there from Nicole, one of the victims of

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Speaker 2: Malca life. As a result of this alleged incident that

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Speaker 2: took place back in July, Malca has been moved to

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Speaker 2: solitary confinement. In just a moment, we'll find out what

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Speaker 2: those conditions are like for her behind bars. Welcome back.

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Speaker 2: I'm chatting to news dot com dot us Rowan Smith row.

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Speaker 2: In some of your exclusives this week about Malca lifer,

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Speaker 2: you've written that as a result of this incident behind

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Speaker 2: bars in July, this alleged incident, she has been sent

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Speaker 2: to solitary confinement at the facility. What would her life

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Speaker 2: be like behind bars? Can you paint a picture for us.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right, she has the difference is that. So

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Speaker 4: she's been in the protection unit. It's called the Murray

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Speaker 4: Unit at the Dame Phillis Frost Center. Inmates there spend

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Speaker 4: the majority of their days mingling in these common areas.

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Speaker 4: Malca has microwaveing her unit TV gets these weekly deliveries.

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Speaker 4: It's prison, but it's not as bad as solitary confinement

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Speaker 4: where she was sent. Well, they investigate these alleged crimes

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Speaker 4: and she's committed inside. I spoke to a former inmate

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Speaker 4: from solitary confinement who was just released in May, and

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Speaker 4: they said to me they spend twenty three hours a

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Speaker 4: day inside their cells. They're not guaranteed to be let

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Speaker 4: out at all during the day. Sometimes they're let out

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Speaker 4: for five minutes and they can be sent back in.

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Speaker 3: It could be thirty minutes.

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Speaker 4: I was told that on some occasions they'll be led

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Speaker 4: out and there'll be a lockdown, and literally as soon

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Speaker 4: as they walk outside, they're sent back in.

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Speaker 3: So there's no mingling with other inmates.

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Speaker 4: There's an airing yard that they can visit, and there's

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Speaker 4: these Code Black incidents all the time, I was told,

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Speaker 4: which is self harm and suicide attempts. So yeah, it's

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Speaker 4: not a nice place to be, and that's where she's

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Speaker 4: going to be for the time being.

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Speaker 2: You often hear rumors that people who've been convicted of

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Speaker 2: the kind of crimes that Malcol Lifa has been convicted

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Speaker 2: of don't have very good reputations in prison. Let's put

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Speaker 2: it that way. What have you heard about how the

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Speaker 2: other inmates feel about malcol at the moment.

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Speaker 4: Mostly that she is disliked, so they say that she's

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Speaker 4: very entitled. That's a theme that has come through in

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Speaker 4: a number of my conversations, and there's a feeling that

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Speaker 4: she gets more than others do, and that she has

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Speaker 4: a large support network.

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Speaker 3: Lobbying for her on the outside. That creates a.

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Speaker 4: Situation where there's like the habits and the have nots

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Speaker 4: not obviously you know that's not good, and it's part

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Speaker 4: of the reason that she spends a lot of time

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Speaker 4: by herself.

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Speaker 3: That's the view of the former INMTES that I spoke to.

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Speaker 4: When I'm not suggesting that everyone feels that way about her,

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Speaker 4: but I think it's fair to say she doesn't have

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Speaker 4: anyone that she's kind of close to anymore.

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Speaker 3: Her own lawyer during the trial, said that.

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Speaker 4: While she had been in custody for two thousand days

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Speaker 4: before she was convicted, that she was lonely in prison,

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Speaker 4: so she wouldn't be having a good time.

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Speaker 2: Well, then don't commit the crime. Let's put it that way, Malca.

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Speaker 2: How long is she behind bars for?

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Speaker 4: So she's eligible for parole in June twenty twenty nine.

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Speaker 4: She doesn't hold a citizenship in Australia anymore and will

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Speaker 4: be deported back to Israel when she leaves prison. She's

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Speaker 4: from a part of the Israel occupied West Banker family,

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Speaker 4: including eight children, live in this gated community about our

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Speaker 4: from El Aviv, and I think she'd welcome going back there.

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Speaker 3: She's got a lot of support in her home country.

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Speaker 2: All right, Well, if you or anyone you know has

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Speaker 2: been affected by sexual assault, you can call the National

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Speaker 2: Domestic Family in Sexual Violence Counseling Service on one eight hundred.

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Speaker 2: Respect ro I know that you will keep on top

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Speaker 2: of this story. Anything that pops up with Malcolifa behind

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Speaker 2: bars you will bring to us on news dot com

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Speaker 2: dot are you. Thanks for your time, Thanks Bucky, thank

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Speaker 2: you for listening. We will have another episode for you tomorrow.

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