Avigail Slavin — christened Elena Kouropatova by her parents Alexei and Natasha in Russia — and now the mother of three children with prominent UK lawyer Neville Eisenberg, is extremely violent with children. Before Neville, Avigail had two daughters in Australia. She initially took them to Russia and left them with their grandparents in St. Petersburg for years — hardly ever contacting them — while she pursued her own interests. After meeting Neville and getting access to his money, Avigail returned to Russia for a while and took the two girls to live with her, the oldest of which — ‘A’ — was 13. Almost immediately, Avigail began a pattern of psychologically and physical abuse. (Detailed in the following posts.) The abuse continued after she took the children to London, and Neville was well aware if it. One day Avigail was screaming and kicking ‘A’ as she lay on floor. Neville’s only response was to tell her to “fuck the shut up” because “the neighbors might hear”. On another occasion, Avigail punched ‘A’ leaving a very bruised face, and Neville’s only response was to ask what this girl’s boyfriend might think. Any time that Neville showed more spine in questioning Avigail’s violence, he was told “these are my children” (and I can do what I want with them). Apart from a 2002 Australian Family Court decision recognising that Avigail (then still called Elena) was violent, a 2005 Court decision suggested that Avigail should be charged with perjury after she submitted forged affidavits by other people. Avigail is now COO and co-founder at DigiDoe Ltd in London. See link: Click here
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In 2002, Australian Family Court Justice O’Ryan wrote: “I am firmly of the view that the child (‘A’) should spend as much time as practicable in the care of the husband”. Adding that if it were not for the amount of time that Avigail had previously spent caring for ‘A’, he “would have no hesitation in ordering that the child reside primarily with the husband”. There was no evidence put forward that Jeff Schubert (‘A’s father) was violent. However, O’Ryan said that Avigail admitted slapping Jeff twice on the face — in the presence of her older sister from Jeff’s first marriage — on 27 August 1999 and calling the police to claim that he had assaulted her. Jeff was arrested and the older sister (then aged 12) was left alone for the night with Avigail (and the younger ‘A’). When, on another occasion Avigail slapped Jeff and then called the police to claim that he had hit her, the older sister told the police what had really happened, and after that the local police refused to believe any of Avigail’s accusations. Avigail also admitted hitting Jeff at a child change-over on 5 February 2000. Psychiatrist Dr. Qadrio, writing the “family report” said that the older child’s fear of Avigail “tends to confirm her account of Avigail being violent”. A second Family Court case in 2005 led to a different result.
A “family report” was prepared in 2005 by Court employed “mediator” Paul Lodge. He is apparently regarded as something of a guru within the Court because he had written a paper and given a speech at an international conference on the subject of “child alienation” from one parent. He thus had a predisposition to try to both protect and enhance his reputation by fitting as many cases as possible into this intellectual framework. Under cross-examination, Lodge said: “The intense and chronic conflict between the parents has began to erode whatever attachment there was between Jeff and ‘A’, as is entirely predictable given her age and intensity of the conflict”. This was despite an affidavit prepared by a women at ‘A’s Rose Bay Primary after-school care centre who wrote: “In the afternoons when Jeff comes to collect ‘A’ she always runs up to him to meet him when she sees him and she will not let him talk to staff members or even sign her out. She often says during the course of the afternoon when Jeff is picking her up, in an exited tone: ‘Daddy’s picking me up this afternoon; Daddy’s picking me up this afternoon.” Lodge claimed that ‘A’ “would not suffer serious consequences if she were not permitted to see Jeff again”, saying that “observations of ‘A’ with Jeff suggested that the relationship was not affectionate”. During the case Jeff again attempted to have the Court take note of the views and concerns of ‘A’s 17 year-old sister. Unlike Dr. Qadrio in the first Family Law Court case, Lodge refused to talk to the older sister who had witnessed Avigail’s violence. Suzanne Christie, acting as part of the “child representative” team said to Jeff: “She’s 17, she’ll move on.” While Avigail did cross-examine one of Jeff’s affidavit witnesses, the “child representative team” did not cross-examine any of them. They thus waited in vain outside the court room. Jeff’s affidavit to the Family Court referred to two incidents. ‘A’ had refused to go with him one day when he went to collect her from her mother, saying: “I’m sick and I want to stay with Mummy”. The next time Jeff had contact with ‘A’ when he picked her up from school she was very happy to see him, and eventually said: “I’m sorry for what I said.” In reply Jeff said: “It’s alright. Just remember that I love you very much.” In a subsequent conversation. ‘A’ said to Jeff: “You are a good daddy. But it’s a secret.” Jeff: “Why is it a secret?” ‘A’: “Don’t tell Mummy. She hates you. She will smack me.” Justice O’Ryan in 2002 – and Dr. Quadrio – had recognized that Avigail was violent, but Lodge had no interest in pursuing such possible facts. In his mind, the only think that mattered was his own superior judgement base on limited conversations and his theories of “child alienation”. During the Court case, Avigail presented a number of documents. In was in
About 2 months after ‘A’ left Australia, Avigail called Jeff and asked if he wanted to talk to ‘A’, and over the next couple of months he got to speak to her on a number of occasions before the calls ceased. On 2 January 2006, Avigail again called and said she was worried about ‘A’ who “would not talk about” the situation, saying: “I don’t know what to do.” With a view to trying to get Avigail onside for further contact, Jeff withdrew his appeal on 17 January 2006. In May he went to St. Petersburg, but found that all information that Avigail had given him turned out to be false. However, Jeff eventually tracked down the address of the grandparents. They were not there, but a neighbor told him that ‘A’ lived there – and Avigail “sometimes” was there – and which school ‘A’ went to. Jeff went to the school, but teachers said they had “never laid eyes” on Avigail, and always interacted with the grandmother. The neighbor also gave Jeff the telephone number of the grandparents and Jeff’s calls were finally answered after he had returned to Australia – by ‘A’! This led to regular calls. In June 2007 Jeff went to St. Petersburg to visit ‘A’ and meetings were facilitated by the grandparents. The video clips (shown below) were taken during the visit. Jeff subsequently moved to Moscow and often visited ‘A’ in the years until she was 14 with the help of the grandparents. When Jeff could no longer contact ‘A’ via the grandparents he went to ‘A’s school. The teachers in the staff room said that ‘A’ no longer live with the grandparents and they were reluctant to help Jeff meet her. However, one of them did tell Jeff what classroom she was in. When ‘A’ saw Jeff she became hysterical and asked the class teacher to “call the police”. Jeff was shocked and returned to Moscow. Several days later Avigail called him and gloated: “Everyone is talking about it.” Some months later, ‘A’s grandfather called Jeff and asked to meet in Moscow. He told Jeff that Avigail had been trying to destroy the relationship between him and ‘A’. Even though ‘A’ lives “very close” in another apartment, she no longer visits him and hardly talks to him. He feels that he has been “cut-off” from her life. In the past he and his wife spent more time caring for ‘A’ than her mother, but now they are being treated very badly by both ‘A’ and Avigail. The grandfather also told Jeff that for two years after ‘A’ arrived in St. Petersburg he had read to her of a night — and every night she said that she wanted to “go back to Australia”. Thereafter, Jeff was to have no news of ‘A’ until he found her on Instagram 10 years later in November 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRbBRwkIpPk&t=34s
Avigail and Oleg had converted to Orthodox Judaism in Sydney. Before they got to St. Petersburg, Avigail, Oleg, “A” and her younger sister via Avigail and Oleg) spent some time in Israel. It was here that Avigail and Oleg increasingly had fights (throwing dishes etc). Oleg would come home late at night (after drinking) and eventually moved out. In St. Petersberg, Avigail insisted that ‘A’s grandparents now call Anastasia by a Jewish name — “B” — but they refused to do this. Avigail then left for long periods (at one stage ‘A’ never saw Avigail for nearly 2 years) and eventually found work in the UK. Now begins the part of ‘A’s life which Jeff had no knowledge of until 10 years later when he found her on Instagram in November 2021. At some stage in the UK, Avigail met a wealthy lawyer named Neville Eisenberg (of British law firm BCLP Cubed) and when ‘A’ was thirteen Avigail returned to St. Petersburg and took Anastasia and her younger sister to live in an expensive apartment in St.Petersburg. Avigail was often violent towards ‘A’. One time, the grandmother said to Avigail words to the effect that such beatings would get ‘A’ used to it and acceptance of beatings from men later in life. One day, Avigail emptied a bucket of water over ‘A’ when she was in bed because she had not finished some cleaning, and bed remained wet for several days. After an incident in which Avigail held a knife in one hand and belted the stone floor with a wooden chair which eventually broke, ‘A’ went to her grandparents. Avigail called police and took them to grandparents apartment, but police said that they could do nothing because ‘A’ said she did not want to live with Avigail. ‘A’s grandfather then drove her to stay with friends in a nearby town to protect her from Avigail. This only enraged Avigail further who paid thugs to slash all the tires on the grandfather’s car. When ‘A’ eventually returned to school, Avigail paid two police officers (one a female) to go the school, take ‘A’ alone to a room and tell he that “something bad” would happen to her grandparents if she did not sign a document saying that she would live with Avigail. Fearing the worst, ‘A’ signed.
‘A’ was permanently taken from Russia on a “holiday” to the USA when aged 15, and then to Israel for about 6 months, After leaving Russia ‘A’ was permitted no contact with her grandparents who had spent years caring for her since the age of 7. In one incident on the trip to USA, ‘A’ was late to do something and Avigail punched her leaving a swollen eye. Later at dinner, Neville asked Avigail: “What is her boyfriend going to think of that?” A photo of ‘A’s bruised face is on the right.
One day Avigail was screaming and kicking ‘A’ as she lay on floor in an expensive part of central London, and Neville raised his hand telling her to “fuck the shut up” because the “neighbors might hear”. ‘A’ has described Neville as “mean, cruel and creepy” who liked to engage in “touching and rubbing”. On at least one occasion he “unlocked” the bathroom door when she was showering and stood near the door “breathing heavily”. ‘A’ was eventually confined to home when not at school and deprived of a mobile phone. However, she found a way to sneak out of a night by climbing out the dormer window onto the roof and then down to the ground. One one occasion she began talking to and drinking with a group of young people in a park, and they became her friends. One of these friends bought her a cheap mobile phone so that she could arrange time to meet them. ‘A’ was put in several schools (Southbank International School, and Immanuel College at The Jewish Free School) but the psychological and physical abuse continued and she found it very hard to concentrate. ‘A’ was afraid to change clothes for sport at school because she was afraid other girls would see her bruises from beatings. On at least two occasions Avigail rang parents of school mates. One time to tell them that their daughter was expressing lesbian feelings in text messages to ‘A’, one time to say that her ‘A’ was Jewish and would not associate with Muslims. ‘A’ never completed school and has no educational qualifications at all. When ‘A’ turned 18, she left home without any money. MANY VERY BAD things then happened to ‘A’, but she says that public knowledge of these will cause her big future problems. ‘A” now lives in a continual state of fear thanks to Avigai, Neville (and his great friend Herzog Isaac Herzog, the president of Israel).
In late 2021, Jeff and ‘A’ had contact for the first time in 10 years after Jeff found her on Instagram and sent a message. ‘A’ says she was initially reluctant to reply to Jeff because Avigail had over many years painted him as a nasty and dangerous person who was best forgotten. Indeed, ‘A’ did end up with only vague memories of her past happy life in Australia, and had completely forgotten most of the meetings with Jeff in Russia when she lived with her grandparents. Jeff was still in Russia when he first contacted ‘A’ but they then regularly communicated over a 12-month period using on-line video. ‘A’ described to Jeff in considerable detail the events of the previous 10 years of her life. Jeff left Russia in October 2022 (because of his opposition to the war in Ukraine, and to give a presentation in New Delhi at the invitation of the Indian government on the relationship between Russia and China) and returned to Australia for a brief period before going to Israel.