Killer awarded working with children check

A former security guard who chased and killed his ex-girlfriend, during a bid to rekindle their relationship, and then shot her lover has been granted a working with children’s check.

A man who chased and killed his ex-girlfriend and shot her lover has been granted a working with children permit.

A man who chased and killed his ex-girlfriend and shot her lover has been granted a working with children permit.

The former security guard, named in legal documents as UYU, was found guilty of the manslaughter of his de facto, who he had invited to his house in an attempt to rekindle their relationship.

But she arrived with a man she had been having an affair with — a close friend of UYU.

Documents show that in an “angry confrontation”, UYU retrieved the gun he used in his role as a security guard from a safe, shot his friend then chased down the woman, 24, and shot and killed her.

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He then turned the gun on himself and suffered a head wound.

UYU, then 30, was acquitted of murder in 1991 due to the old defence of provocation, which allowed a defendant to argue that they had been ­provoked to kill.

The controversial defence was abolished in 2005 and ­replaced with defensive homicide, also dumped in 2014.

Despite serving a “significant term of imprisonment” for his “serious criminal history”, the man’s application to work with Victorian kids was approved on Tuesday.

Documents show UYU was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with a non-parole period of seven years, on July 18, 1991.

But he served just 4½ years, was let out under early release and worked in a school as a handyman and cleaner with supervision.

The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal overturned a decision refusing the man a working with children permit.

Now a husband and father, he currently works for the same cleaning company and regularly volunteers at a school for umpiring duties.

His first application to work with children, in 2012, was initially refused by the Department of Justice.

But that decision was overturned by the Victorian Civil and ­Administrative Tribunal’s deputy president Mark Dwyer.

The check had to be renewed after five years, and UYU reapplied in July this year.

However, attempted murder was reclassified during that time from a category B to a ­category A offence, therefore requiring the ­department to deny his application.

But UYU appealed that ­decision again to VCAT through Victoria Legal Aid and won his appeal on Tuesday.

In her decision, VCAT deputy president Heather Lambrick referred to the earlier order by her colleague, Mr Dwyer.

Mr Dwyer said UYU “committed the offences whilst under extreme emotional stress, and that they were otherwise well out of character. I have indicated the offences were not child-related, but arose from a confrontation ­between adults that became violent”.

Ms Lambrick said the likelihood of UYU being a threat to children was low. UYU has not been charged with any offences since his 1991 conviction.

Attorney-General Martin Pakula said the Government would “remove all VCAT appeal rights for Category A offences” as part of its response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

“We’ve already made substantial changes to strengthen the application process, because we understand there is community concern around some of these matters,” he said.

Shadow Attorney-General John Pesutto said there was “case after case” of people guilty of violent crimes getting working with children checks.

“If the primary aim of our working with children check system is the protection of children, you have to wonder just how serious offending has to be before such checks are denied,” he said.

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