Mustafa Kunduraci free to kill due to decisions made by AAT forerunner
THE man who murdered Moonee Ponds couple Korinne Aylward and Greg Tucker should have been deported, with decisions to keep him out of Australia twice overturned by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal’s predecessor.
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TURKISH double murderer Mustafa Kunduraci was free to kill because decisions to keep him out of Australia were twice overturned by the forerunner to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
One of the victim’s sisters has accused the tribunal of having “blood on its hands” because of decisions it made to initially allow Kunduraci into Australia and then to foil an attempt to kick him out.
The Herald Sun can reveal Kunduraci was banned from entering Australia in 1995 and was due to be deported years before he stabbed Korinne Aylward and her partner Greg Tucker to death at their Moonee Ponds home in 2013 — a crime for which he was jailed for 35 years.
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That initial ban by the Immigration Department was overturned by the Immigration Review Tribunal and the 2007 deportation order issued by a delegate for the Immigration Minister was overturned by the Migration Review Tribunal.
The Herald Sun last week revealed that eight killers and 66 other criminals with shocking records of violence were among the 164 foreign-born criminals the AAT has saved from deportation since 2010.
That article prompted Maria Aylward to contact the Herald Sun about the 2013 murders of her sister Korinne Aylward, 35, and Korinne’s long-term partner Greg Tucker, 54.
She said she was disgusted that the tribunal had dismissed the advice of Immigration Department officials and that doing so had affected so many lives, including those of her sister and Greg’s children, Callum, Ryan and Grace, who were in the house when their parents were murdered. The children were aged five, three and nearly two at the time.
“If they hadn’t overturned the decisions, the kids would still have parents,” Maria Aylward, 43, said on Sunday.
“The Tribunal has got blood on its hands. It may as well have put the knife in the murderer’s hands.
“The end result is the same, the death of my sister and her partner.”
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Korinne’s other sister, Katelyn, 38, said they were as sure as they could be that the two older children heard the attack and saw the bodies of their parents before police arrived at the house.
“They have said things since, like ‘mummy was pushed down the stairs by the bad guy’. There was a hole at the bottom of the stairs where police think she has hit the wall,” she said.
“One of them also said dad died with red chewing gum in his mouth, which we presume was blood.”
A delegate for the Immigration Minister refused Kunduraci’s application for a partner visa in 2006, so Kunduraci appealed to the Migration Review Tribunal (MRT) in a bid to stay in the country.
MRT member Peter Katsambanis — who is now opposition police spokesman in Western Australia — sent the application back to the ministerial delegate with the direction that Kunduraci did meet the criteria for a spouse visa.
Kunduraci wouldn’t have been allowed into Australia in the first place were it not for the Immigration Review Tribunal (IRT), which was later renamed the MRT and the MRT was then merged with the AAT in 2015.
The Herald Sun has discovered the Immigration Department rejected Kunduraci’s 1995 application for a short stay visitor visa and, following an appeal by Kunduraci, the department’s Migration Internal Review Office upheld that visa banning decision.
Kunduraci’s sister then applied to the IRT in Melbourne to try to reverse the ban on her brother coming to Australia.
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IRT member Michelle Scott — who is now the director of WA’s McCusker Centre for Citizenship — set aside the Immigration Department’s visa rejection decision and substituted it with a decision to grant Kunduraci a visa for a three-month stay in Australia.
The Immigration Department considered Turkish males aged 20 years and over to be in the overstayer risk group.
Policy directions at the time stated that for such males to be granted visitor visas, the IRT member hearing the appeal had to be satisfied there was “very little likelihood” the applicant would remain in Australia after the expiry of any visa granted.
Kunduraci was 27 at the time Ms Scott heard his case in the IRT.
He got his short stay visitor visa after assuring Ms Scott he would return to Turkey before his three-month visa expired.
Kunduraci told Ms Scott his incentives for returning to Turkey included that he had a fiance there he intended marrying within months, that he had a high-paying job with a printing company and had recently bought a flat in his Turkish hometown.
Despite his supposed fiance in Turkey, once Kunduraci got his visitor visa and arrived in Melbourne in 1996 he quickly married an Australian woman of Turkish descent, got a spousal visa which allowed him to stay in Australia and then just as quickly ended that marriage.
Kunduraci was later granted a second spouse visa in 2007 by the then Melbourne MRT member Peter Katsambanis, who is now a WA Liberal MP and also used to be the member for Monash in the Victorian Parliament.
That was despite him hearing evidence from a delegate for the Immigration Minister that Kunduraci and his wife had not lived together for more than a year, they had both stated their relationship had broken down and they had never provided any proof of cohabitation.
Mr Katsambanis spoke to the Herald Sun today about his visa granting decision and said the 2013 actions of Kunduraci in murdering Korinne Aylward and Mr Tucker were “horrific”.
“My heart goes out to the family members of his victims,” he told the Herald Sun.
“Nothing we say or do now can adequately compensate them for their loss and suffering.
“All tribunal members are bound to apply the law as it stands at the time of making a decision on a matter before them.
“In 2007, this man provided evidence to the Tribunal that he had a child in Australia and that he was entitled to see that child.
“This evidence in relation the child was not available to the delegate who made the original decision.
“Based on this new evidence, Kunduraci met the criteria to obtain the visa he had applied for and any other decision would have been subject to appeal in a higher court.
“It should also be pointed out that there was no evidence in 2007 to indicate that Kunduraci had any criminal history or any propensity towards violence.
“Had any such evidence been available, his application could have been rejected on character grounds.”
The double murder wasn’t the first time Kunduraci showed his propensity for violence.
In February 2010 he violently attacked and threatened to kill his former partner, including hitting her several times with a belt and kicking her. He was jailed for six months, suspended for 12 months.
Kunduraci butchered Korinne Aylward and her partner Greg Tucker over a renovation dispute relating to a debt for plastering work Kunduraci, 46, of Meadow Heights, claimed the couple owed him.
Korinne was downstairs in the family’s Moonee Ponds home when she sent a text message to her sister Katelyn to wish her good night at 10.41pm on December 8, 2013. Her long-term partner Greg Tucker was upstairs getting ready for bed at the time.
It was a very happy time as the family had celebrated the christening of the youngest of Korinne and Greg’s three children, Grace, the day before and were planning a birthday celebration for her the next day as she was turning two.
That happiness was shattered by Kunduraci, who entered the house from the rear yard. He was armed with a knife and an imitation pistol and was carrying a backpack stuffed full of incriminating items.
“It is likely your unwelcome intrusion caught Ms Aylward off guard and led to a violent confrontation in which you stabbed her to death whilst she was unarmed and vulnerable,” Supreme Court Justice Jane Dixon told Kunduraci while sentencing him to a maximum of 35 years for the double murder in 2015.
“Ms Aylward suffered 10 distinct stab wounds, including defensive wounds on her arms and legs, with one significant knife wound passing through the sternum and the heart which would, on its own, have proved fatal.
“She died close to where the stabbing occurred in the vicinity of the rear bi-fold doors where you entered the premises.
“It is probable that upon hearing a violent confrontation, Mr Tucker came downstairs to her rescue, but was then also attacked and stabbed by you near the stairs, where his blood was detected, but also near the bi-fold doors where cast off bloodstains were detected.
“Mr Tucker was stabbed 13 times, with many wounds to his vital organs and a wound through the sternum and heart similar to that inflicted on his wife.
“Mr Tucker’s blood had also pooled outside in the rear courtyard, suggesting that he may have moved outside briefly whilst bleeding, before ultimately collapsing in proximity to Ms Aylward.
“Blood stains suggest that you left the premises after entering the downstairs bathroom, walking down the hall to the front door, which was internally deadlocked, then returning to the rear bi-fold doors, exiting through the garage stairs and out the garage door leading onto the driveway.
“You were seen by witnesses, covered in blood and walking quickly past them, on Eglinton St.
“There was another sighting of you by further witnesses at the corner of Holmes St and Darling St at 11.15pm.
“You sent a phone text to your flat mate, Mr Hakan Kayar, at 11.18pm, stating that: ‘I messed up my situation and your situation too. I tried to fix it but I couldn’t. Don’t call me, don’t message me. The car is at the roundabout on the left side on Darling St. When you’re available come and get it’.
“After you left the premises, you phoned 000 at 11.19pm and told the operator you had gone to the house to get money and been involved in a fight and that you were bleeding from your hand.
“You did not specifically mention the stabbings to the operator, although you implied that something serious had occurred and that police were needed.
“Police attended at 11.35pm and saw you sitting out the front of the house covered in blood.
“They quickly entered the home through the back door and found both of the deceased already dead and lying on the floor near the rear doors.
“Your shoes were found next to the deceased. The murder weapon, a bloodied Arcosteel kitchen knife, was found discarded in the rear yard and a broken plastic imitation pistol was found at the base of the stairs inside.
“The backpack was found discarded in the hallway near the children’s bedrooms.
“When it was recovered by police, the backpack was found to contain a can of energy drink, an invoice book for the plastering company that you worked for, a roll of duct tape, a packet of cable ties, two sets of cable ties linked in a fashion similar to handcuffs, two plastic bags labelled ‘patient’ clothing, a trigger spray bottle pre-filled with petrol and a set of keys with a remote plate.
“Police officers rescued the children, taking care to shield them from what had taken place.
“A further text message was sent by you to Mr Kayar at 11.27pm stating: ‘Hi to everyone that knows me and tell them to forgive me’.
“Mr Kayar phoned you in response and you told him: ‘I messed up, I couldn’t fix it. I came to Greg’s house to ask my money [sic], they tried to fight me. I had to kill them’.
“I do not accept that you were invited to the home to discuss an outstanding plastering dispute.
“The dispute was over as far as Mr Tucker and Ms Aylward were concerned. Attempts by mutual associates to mediate the dispute had failed and you developed a serious grudge against the deceased.
“In reality you had gone to the premises uninvited, with the premeditated intention to engage in armed and violent confrontation.
“The carriage of deadly weapons and the items in your backpack were evidence of your plan.
“Regardless of whether or not you planned in advance of the visit to kill both of your victims, which is a matter about which I cannot be certain, you were nevertheless obsessed with a desire to avenge a perceived wrong.
“Even if your original plan did not involve killing your victims, the evidence establishes that you gave no quarter to either of your victims from the moment you entered their home.
“The deliberate murder of two parents within the haven of their family home, whilst their three children were nearby in their beds, was criminal conduct of utmost gravity.
“The number and location of wounds on both deceased bespeak a determination by you to ensure they would die at your hands once the attack began.
“Unarmed and vulnerable, they stood no chance of escaping your cruel attack.
“Your actions orphaned three young children. Unfathomable grief and anguish has been wrought upon the entire extended family of Korinne and Gregory. That family must now strive to provide the love and care that Korinne and Gregory would have otherwise given to Callum, Ryan and Grace.”
The three children left orphaned are now being brought up by Korinne’s sisters Maria and Katelyn.
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Maria Aylward yesterday told the Herald Sun the children were still suffering greatly from the effects of the murder of their parents.
“They have been teased by other kids about not having any parents and getting brought up by two aunties,” she said.
“They see other kids with mums and dads and it hurts them knowing they no longer have their parents.”
Maria said one of the many things that angered her about Kunduraci being allowed to stay in Australia was the fact he successfully argued he needed a visa to stay in the country so he could see one of his Australian-born children, who was living with his estranged second wife.
“He should have been deported then, long before he murdered my sister and her partner, yet he got his visa so he could see his child,” she said.
“Yet his actions mean my sister’s children can never see their parents.
“It’s just not right that he was allowed to stay here and do what he did.”
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