Abuse Charges Dropped Against Aussie Chabad Leader

By JTA July 26, 2012

Multiple charges against a former Chabad-Lubavitch youth leader in Melbourne have been dropped.

Aron “Ezzy” Kestecher, 27, was charged last year with four counts of indecent acts on a child under 16. All four charges were withdrawn Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice confirmed.

Kestecher revealed the news on Facebook, writing “All charges gone.” In a later post, he wrote: “I never lost hope in God. It was Judaism that was the issue.”

Kestecher declined to comment on the case to JTA.

The news comes two weeks after David Cyprys, a former security guard at Yeshivah College in Melbourne, was ordered to stand trial next July on 41 counts of child sex abuse. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges allegedly perpetrated on 12 victims who were students at Yeshivah College in the 1980s. Three of the victims now live in America.

The college, which shares a campus with the Chabad headquarters in Melbourne, has reassured parents it has the strictest protocols in place to safeguard their students.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO