Malka Leifer, the former principal of the Adass Israel School, is being sentenced on Thursday morning for the sexual abuse of Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper when they were students at the Elsternwick school between 2004 and 2007.
Ms Erlich, Ms Sapper and older sister Nicole Meyer, whose allegations of abuse Leifer was acquitted on, are there in person for the hearing in the Victorian County Court.
Leifer isn't.
She is watching proceedings by videolink from the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, Melbourne's maximum security women's prison.
Ms Erlic said the sisters were nervous but relieved the sentencing day had finally come.
"We're going in with low expectations, hoping that we don't see a predator back on the streets too soon to abuse again," she told Sky News outside of the County Court on Thursday morning.
"No sentence is going to reflect what she did to us but what we're hoping for is that, as long as possible, she's away."
The courtroom is full for the sentencing hearing, with former premier Ted Baillieu, Victorian MP David Southwick and Tessa Sullivan among those in attendance.
The journey from charges to conviction to sentence has been long, delayed by Leifer fleeing to Israel in 2008 when allegations were first raised with school officials.
A years-long legal battle against extradition followed, during which Leifer spent time in home detention and prison in her homeland.
Psychological reports accused Leifer of feigning mental illness to avoid extradition, a finding backed by prosecutor Justin Lewis.
He described Leifer as having "some sort of allergy to the legal proceedings themselves".
The 56-year-old mother of eight arrived back in Australia to face justice in 2020 and was convicted after a trial earlier this year.
Jurors found her guilty of 18 offences relating to the abuse of Ms Erlich and Ms Sapper.
Judge Gamble is expected to take into account the time Leifer spent in Israel, including in home detention, when he hands down the sentence.
Her barrister, Ian Hill KC, described that time as punitive, confined to a space away from her husband and children.
While she could have visitors, she missed religious duties and functions and was under constant supervision, he said.
Mr Hill previously described Leifer as lonely and a broken woman.
A former colleague, Malky Fixler, said she had gone from an "upbeat and inspiring educator to an isolated, depressed shadow of her former self".
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