Andrew Giles considering cancelling Glenn Taylor’s visa after victim Jesica Mills speaks out

Labor considers cancelling the visa of NZ menace Glenn Taylor as it’s revealed one in five criminals who avoid deportation under Direction 99 are sex offenders.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles in question time on Wednesday. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles is considering cancelling the visa of a New Zealand menace after one of his victims spoke out as it was separately revealed ­almost one in five criminals who had their ­deportations overturned as a ­result of Direction 99 were sex ­offenders.

The Australian can also reveal three more cases of non-citizen sex offenders who had been spared deportation – bringing the number to at least 18 – in part due to the controversial Direction 99.

They include a man who raped a young woman employed to care for his seriously ill daughter, another man who sexually ­assaulted and bashed his girlfriend, and a registered child sex offender who was repeatedly caught masturbating in public.

In each case, the requirement to make the strength, nature and duration of an individual’s ties to Australia – elevated to a primary consideration under Direction 99 – was a factor in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal’s decision.

It comes after single mother Jesica Mills told The Australian of the harassment and threats she received from New Zealander Glenn Taylor, who has racked up more than 35 convictions since arriving from New Zealand as a four-year-old in 1978, including a history of domestic abuse.

Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said Mr Giles should “apologise to Ms Mills and resign”, saying his position had become untenable.

“Andrew Giles has spoken about his obligations to foreign criminals but he has forgotten his obligation to Australian victims of non-citizen criminals allowed to stay because of Direction 99,” he said. “How many victims of non-citizen criminals will be ­re-traumatised when they find out their perpetrator won’t be ­deported because of Direction 99? He needs to listen to victims about how his ill-considered ­ministerial direction has impacted them.”

Ms Mills had laid the blame at the feet of the government, which said on Wednesday it would consider overturning the AAT’s February decision to revoke Taylor’s mandatory visa cancellation.

“All women and children, including Ms Mills and her family, deserve to be safe and feel safe in the community,” Mr Giles said, calling threats and harassment “completely unacceptable”.

“My priority is to implement changes to the ministerial direction, putting community safety front and centre of the new, ­revised direction.”

Taylor’s visa was cancelled in April 2023 after he received a 14-month custodial sentence for ­offences including destroying Ms Mills’ property, threatening her and breaching an apprehended ­violence order.

The AAT said that although Taylor’s risk of reoffending was “unacceptable” – and that his criminal history and the threat to community safety weighed against revoking the cancellation – his ties to Australia, that he spent his formative years here, and a brain injury contributed to its ­decision. Ms Mills said that her family’s ordeal was “traumatic” and that as long as Taylor remained, they would be in fear.

A spokeswoman for Mr Giles would not shed light on what progress had been made in ­deporting the individuals or if any of the foreign criminals whose visas had been cancelled had lodged an appeal. “The department follows the same process to detain an individual who has had their visa cancelled as it has followed for many years under successive governments – including when Peter Dutton was minister,” she said.

The spokeswoman said the minister was reviewing the latest cases. “In at least one of these cases, Peter Dutton didn’t take the opportunity to cancel their visa when he was Minister,” the spokeswoman said. “It’s up to him to explain why he didn’t act then.”

Of the 95 overturned visa cancellations reviewed by The Australian to date, almost one in five involved someone convicted of sex-related offences, including the three identified on Wednesday.

One of those, an Iraqi identified only as JNMQ, had arrived unlawfully in Australia in 2012 with his two-year-old daughter, who suffered from serious medical conditions. During his time in Iraq, his mother, father, brother and sister-in-law were murdered, and he had been kidnapped and tortured by armed militia.

In 2019, he was found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting a young woman he had hired to help care for his daughter.

“(The victim suffered) physical injuries to her mouth and throat and bruising … and ‘considerable psychological, emotional, social, physical and financial harm’,” AAT member Rob Reitano said.

But he said the man’s family ties to Australia – his wife and children hold visas entitling them to stay indefinitely – were “weighty considerations” that counted in his favour.

Liberian national Eddy Sarpor was also spared deportation over multiple sex offences. Sarpor had been caught masturbating in his car in view of a teenage girl who was helping unload groceries, and he had also been convicted on charges relating to his installation of a camera in his bathroom, which he used to record a victim using the toilet, and an incident in whic

h he followed a woman into a bathroom and attempted to film her under a dividing wall.

AAT deputy president John Pascoe said that Sarpor was at the “high end of moderate to high” risk of reoffending. “(Sarpor) showed little or no self-control in relation to his offending, and continued to offend despite previous convictions, warnings and restrictions placed on him,” he said.

However, he found that the strength of Sarpor’s ties to Australia should carry heavy weight in favour of revoking the cancellation of his visa, with his stepmother, father and siblings all residing in Australia.

Similarly, a Sierra Leone-born man identified as FCZT had his visa cancellation overturned after being convicted of three counts of aggravated sexual assault, one count of choking a person, and one count of stalking and intimidation, all related to an incident against his girlfriend when he was 18 years old. Senior member ­Rebecca Bellamy said the man’s ties to Australia weighed “moderately” in his favour, given his family suffered from injuries and were unable to work.

It is understood FCZT has remained in detention since the decision.

Australian Lawyers Alliance spokesman and barrister Greg Barns said the 35 criminal non-citizens who had had visas cancelled would have an avenue to appeal the decision in the Federal Court.

However, their cases would need to be argued on “narrower grounds” by contending that there had been an error of law in the ­Immigration Minister’s decision, cautioning that rushed decisions could provide grounds for an ­appeal. “Ministers need to be careful to ensure that they give proper consideration to all of the matters that are in the direction, and in terms of the submissions that are made to them on behalf of the individual, whose visa has been revoked or they wish to revoke,” Mr Barns said, adding it was “not a tick-and-flick exercise”.