Recently released detainee denied bail after allegedly ‘sexually charged’ messages with 15-year-old
A man released from immigration detention in November has been caught allegedly sending “sexually charged” messages to a 15-year-old girl.
A convicted sexual predator who was recently released from immigration detention had been sending “sexually charged” messages to a 15-year-old during his detainment, a court has been told.
Emran Dad, 33, was denied bail on Thursday after Magistrate Tony Burns concluded he was an unacceptable risk to the community.
Mr Dad, along with 147 other detainees, was released from immigration detention in November following a controversial High Court decision that found it was unlawful to keep the group locked up indefinitely.
On Thursday, Detective Senior Constable Daniel Jacobi told Dandenong Magistrates’ Court how the Afghan national had been charged with a slew of offences, including the sexual penetration of multiple children under the age of 16, preceding his detainment.
Detective Jacobi said Mr Dad was facing more than 10 charges in the 24 days following his release.
They charges included breaches of requirements made under the Sex Offenders Registration Act and the trespass of a Centrelink.
After telling police earlier that he was unaware of social media, Mr Dad was found to have been engaging in “sexually orientated” and “sexually charged” conversation on TikTok with a girl, who claimed to be 15 years old, since September, the court heard on Thursday.
Pages of screenshots of the conversation were shared with Magistrate Burns who said he had used “love heart” emojis prolifically throughout the messages which he had been sending up until his arrest on December 5.
In the messages, he asked the young girl to enter into a TikTok live video chat.
Following further examination of his phone, Detective Jacobi said Mr Dad had photos saved of himself sitting next to children only two days after his release.
Detective Jacobi told the court that after Mr Dad’s arrest for sexually penetrating a young girl in 2012, he had told police that “he had no one else to have sex with”.
Mr Dad had said he thought it was okay to have sex with people under the age of 16, adding that there were no such laws back in his home country.
Mr Dad’s brother appeared in court to pledge his family’s full support of the 33-year-old, claiming that despite the embarrassment his actions had caused, they were willing to closely watch over him.
“As a family we fully support him,” he said.
Magistrate Burns said despite the strong support of his family, there was nothing to suggest he would not reoffend.
Mr Dad is scheduled to appear in court again on January 12 next year.