SA police update community as former detainee charged days after High Court decision release

South Australian police have confirmed two registered child sex abusers are settling in the state after their release from detention.

Two convicted child sex abuse offenders are loose in one state after their release from immigration detention, the police have confirmed.

South Australian Assistant Commissioner of Crime John Venditto said police officers were monitoring the two registered sex offenders from a total of six former detainees now free in the state following November’s High Court decision striking down indefinite detention.

“We know where they are, we visit them,” the assistant commissioner said.

“We give them the conditions. We make sure they don’t go near children, we make sure children don’t go near them.”

The revelation comes in the same week 65-year-old former detainee Aliyawar Yawari fronted Adelaide Magistrates Court facing charges he indecently assaulted a woman just three weeks after his release from detention in WA.

The police arrested Mr Yawari at the Pavlos Motel in Adelaide’s northern suburbs on Saturday night.

Mr Yawari was previously jailed for assaulting three elderly women between 2013 and 2014.

Assistant Commissioner Venditto said the other five detainees were based in Adelaide’s “northern areas”.

The police are moving to address community concerns following a growing outcry from Mr Yawari’s arrest.

There are now 148 former detainees, including a number who have been convicted of violent crimes, free in the country after the court ruling.

Assistant Commissioner of Crime John Venditto said the release of detainees into South Australia was not a ‘crisis’ and the police could manage the problem. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

The Australian Federal Police and Australian Border Force are responsible for tracking the detainees and fitting them with bracelets.

Assistant Commissioner Venditto said information on the former detainees flowed effectively from the federal agencies down to the state level and he expressed confidence the police could manage the influx.

“We are talking half a dozen prisoners. It is absolutely manageable,” he said.

The assistant commissioner said Australia was a “free country” and the police could not block detainees from moving into the state, but he added police officers could monitor former detainees effectively and put safeguards in place to protect community safety.

“We can’t see around corners, but we can see through BS,” he said.

“And we know what they are planning, what they are not planning, whether they are intending on moving, who they are going to associate with.”

He said South Australian police were notified when Mr Yawari entered South Australia and they received alerts from the AFP and ABF when detainees crossed borders.

“We in South Australia, visit all of them. We go face to face. We meet them. We verify their identity and welcome them to South Australia,” he said.

“We explain to them how we are going to police them.”

Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil fields questions on the fallout from criminals released from detention at Question Time on November 30. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The government is now rushing through legislation to tighten controls on released detainees as political fallout from the court ruling grows.

South Australian Liberal leader David Speirs has called the government’s response to the decision a “catastrophic failure”.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to sack Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles.

“The Minister’s made catastrophic mistakes in his decision-making and unfortunately now that they’ve released 147 people in total, with a potential 340 (more), the likelihood of attacks, and given the cohort, the nature of these people, the high degree of the viciousness of some of the offending, the very high likelihood is that there will be more victims,” Mr Peter Dutton told Adelaide radio on Tuesday.

“It’s avoidable and it’s a tragedy.”

Ms O’Neil has hit back at Mr Dutton, saying he had voted against a bill that would have tightened controls on child sex abusers.

“A bill that Labor put forward to criminalise pedophiles standing in front of schools, the leader of the Opposition and his team voted against it, and you cannot hide from that,” she said in parliament on November 30.

In a statement tabled to the senate on Tuesday morning, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the government had no choice but to release the non-citizens.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is gunning for the scalp of Immigration Minister Andrew Giles in the fallout from the release of detainees with criminal convictions. . Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“Whether a person is required to be released turns solely on whether they fall within the limit identified by the High Court’s order in NZYQ - and not, for example, on their personal circumstances including any criminal history they may have,” he said.

“It is a fundamental principle of our system of law that the government cannot deprive a person of their liberty without positive authority conferred by law.”

Labor is currently preparing to introduce new laws to give courts the power to re-detain some of the worst offenders for rolling three year stints in prison.

Tuesday also revealed a third former detainee had been arrested for an alleged offence after the arrest of Mr Yawari and a NSW man.

The police have arrested 33-year-old man in Dandenong, Victoria, for breaching his reporting requirements and allegedly contacting minors.

It is understood the man is a registered sex offender, in 2012 the former detainee pleaded guilty to obtaining girls for a prostitution syndicate.

Originally published as SA police update community as former detainee charged days after High Court decision release