Whānau and friends say he will return home as a warrior in life and death.

Jurors have begun deliberating over allegations former ultra-Orthodox Jewish principal Malka Leifer sexually abused three vulnerable students.

After nearly six weeks of evidence and addresses from lawyers, 12 jurors retired to consider their verdicts on Wednesday afternoon.

Leifer, 56, is facing 27 charges over the alleged abuse of Melbourne sisters Nicole Meyer, Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper when she was head of religion and principal of the Adass Israel School in the city's eastern suburbs between 2003 and 2007.

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Leifer, a mother of eight, has pleaded not guilty and has faced trial in the Victorian County Court.

Two charges were dropped during the trial because they pre-dated relevant legislation.

Prosecutors Justin Lewis has asked the jurors to consider that Leifer had a tendency to have a sexual interest in girls when they were teenage students at the school, and when those same girls were student teachers.

He alleged she had a tendency to engage in sexual activities with them and take advantage of their vulnerability, ignorance in sexual matters and her position of authority in order to do so.

The sisters had an isolated upbringing in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community and received no sexual education, the court heard.

Lewis said the sisters had given explicit evidence that they did not understand the sexual nature of what Leifer did to them.

The abuse allegedly occurred on school camps and during private lessons on Sundays at the school and Leifer's home.

Leifer allegedly abused Meyer when they shared a bed on a school camp, while Erlich was pretending to be asleep in the same room.

Jurors were told Sapper had walked into a room while Leifer was abusing Erlich.

"Mrs Leifer was one of the most respected persons in the community. If Mrs Leifer was doing something then it must be okay," Sapper said of seeing what was happening to her sister.

Erlich told the jury she had tried to form a relationship with another teacher to ask about what Leifer was doing.

"(Leifer) told me it wasn't healthy for me to have a connection with another teacher, to have more than one mentor," she said.

The sisters gave evidence over two weeks behind closed doors.

Other witnesses included those they disclosed their allegations to.

Erlich first spoke to social worker Chana Rabinowitz in Israel in early 2008.

Rabinowitz said she asked Erlich who hurt her and the young woman replied "it was Mrs Leifer".

"She was very distraught," she said.

"I remember that she was kind of hunched over into herself and she could only whisper what it was."

Psychologist Vicki Gordon said she saw Sapper over several months and she disclosed that Leifer would touch her all over her body and even though Leifer knew from the beginning that she didn't like it, she would continue.

"She told me it was because I never had any warmth and affection from home – I was more needy than other girls and she was trying to help me get over it," Gordon read from her notes, quoting Sapper.

Leifer's barrister, Ian Hill KC, said the sisters had revered their former principal, and writing from the time showed them thanking her for being supportive.

He told jurors that Erlich's story had been constantly added to, developed and varied between the allegations being made in 2008 and the trial.

"Truth and reliability were lost in false accounts," he said.

"Perhaps even at times hardened into false imaginations and false memories of false realities."

He criticised Sapper for changing the location of alleged incidents – first claiming something happened in Melbourne and later changing it to Israel.

"It's the wrong memory combined with the detail that shows you just how dangerous some witnesses can be when recounting a narrative to you," he said.

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Students have defended a teacher in the New South Wales Hunter region after he was charged with assault following a violent classroom brawl.

Michael Kable allegedly assaulted a student at Maitland Grossmann High School after a fight broke out between the pair in a classroom yesterday.

Student Mike Tansi told 9News the 62-year-old teacher tried to look after all of them.

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His classmate Hayden Thomas said he felt bad for Kable.

"He's one of those teachers who tried really hard and honestly I feel for him," Thomas said.

The mother of the boy involved in the physical altercation told 9News she did not condone the students' behaviour, but that a teacher never has a right to lay a hand on a pupil. 

Police said the brawl appeared to have been sparked by a paper fight, with footage filmed by another student emerging after the incident.

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It's alleged the teacher was grabbing a teen by his collar and pulling him down onto a desk.

A student hurled a table at the teacher.

Later, classmates can be seen rushing out the door.

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The student involved in the incident was assessed by paramedics. He was not physically injured.

Police have confirmed the footage will form part of their investigation and the Department of Education is also looking into the incident.

9News has reached out to Maitland Grossmann High for comment. 

Kable was charged with common assault at Belmont Police Station but granted bail after his arrest.

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Myrtle rust, a windborne fungal disease, kills pōhutakawa, mānuka trees and other natives

OPINION: ‘Without that basic need, more of our people are vulnerable than ever before.’

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this story has images of a person who is deceased.

A Perth teenager accused of murdering pregnant mother Diane Miller by throwing a lump of concrete through her car window today pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.

Western Australia state prosecutors accepted the teen's guilty plea to the lesser offence of manslaughter.

READ MORE: Brawl between teacher and student breaks out at NSW school

The teen cannot be identified as they were 17 at the time Miller was fatally injured.

Miller, 30, died after two days in intensive care in Royal Perth Hospital, where she had been placed in a medically induced coma.

Her unborn child, who was five months along, also died.

Miller was hit with a piece of concrete while sitting in her car outside Waterford Plaza Shopping Centre in Karawara.

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She was knocked unconscious and went into cardiac arrest.

Police arrested the 17-year-old the day after the attack.

Their charges were upgraded to murder, before today's developments in Children's Court.

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Firefighters rushed to the scene just after 6.30pm this evening

Flight left Melbourne bound for the resort town, but was instead diverted to Christchurch.

The new water treatment plant will supply 35,000 households

Wallabies star Kurtley Beale's lawyer has indicated he will plead not guilty to sexually assaulting a woman in Sydney in late 2022 when the time comes.

Beale is accused of sexually assaulting a 28-year-old woman at a licensed premises near Bondi Beach on December 17, 2022.

The 34-year-old was charged in January with two counts of sexually touching another person without consent, inciting another to sexually touch without consent and sexual intercourse without consent.

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Rugby Australia has suspended Beale from all forms of rugby until the conclusion of his legal proceedings.

Beale was not required to attend when his case was mentioned in Waverley Local Court on Wednesday. He remains on bail.

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Outside court, his lawyer Lauren MacDougall said the case was still in its early stages and Beale was not yet required to enter a plea.

Asked how he intended to plead, she said he "definitely won't be pleading guilty" to the charges.

Beale, who had been capped 95 times by the Wallabies, was expected to be given a fresh lease of life under newly appointed national coach Eddie Jones.

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He took part in a 44-man Wallabies training camp on the Gold Coast in January, returning to Australia ahead of the Super Rugby season for the NSW Waratahs after several years playing in France.

Beale, who is from NSW, has spent most of his more than a decade-long career with the Waratahs, aside from a brief spell with the Melbourne Rebels.

His case will return to Waverley Local Court on April 19.

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