More serious offenders spared deportation under Direction 99

Two more child sex offenders are also among the latest offenders to be spared deportation amid the fallout of Direction 99.

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

A man who sexually assaulted a woman with Down syndrome, another who viciously attacked his pregnant partner in an attempt to kill his unborn child, and a drug dealer who had twice tried to deceive his way into securing a visa are among the latest criminals to be spared deportation in the wake of Immigration Minister Andrew Giles’ Direction 99.

Those cases are in addition to two child more sex offenders The Australian has discovered were allowed to remain in the country after the Administrative Appeals Tribunal cited Direction 99.

The latest cases identified as part of The Australian’s investigation into the consequences of Mr Giles’ changes to the way deportation cases are considered by the AAT came as the minister announced on Thursday he had cancelled eight. visas of criminal non-citizens, whose cases this newspaper had uncovered.

The Australian has so far found more than 80 serious offenders who have had their visas reinstated by the AAT at least in part due to the requirement – introduced under Direction 99 – to make the strength, nature and duration of their ties to Australia a “primary consideration” when assessing their cases.

Among the latest cases was a recent decision to allow a Sri Lankan citizen, identified only as YCNS, to remain in Australia after he was convicted of one count of sexual touching without consent and another count of intentionally choking a person without consent.

The charges related to an incident at a boarding house where both YCNS and his victim lived.

He asked the woman, who has Down syndrome, if he could see her room. When they entered, he grabbed her breasts with both hands, squeezed her nipples, and fondled her breasts and buttocks. When his victim tried to leave the room, he wrapped his arm around her neck, choking her for about seven seconds, before her screams led to another resident to come to her rescue.

AAT member Rob Reitano found that while the man had only modest ties to Australia, they were enough to carry weight in favour of revoking his visa. “Although he has no family ties to the Australian community, the applicant’s relatively long time in Australia, over 10 years without serious offending, and his employment during that time count for something. His few but meaningful connections to the community carry some weight as well,” he said.

Less than two weeks ago, the AAT opted to revoke the cancellation of the visa of a Sierra Leone national who had been found twice to have tried to lie to get a visa. The man, identified only as RDQK, had arrived in Australia on a tourist visa in 2012 and had been denied a protection visa that same year after a delegate found he had fabricated evidence in his application. A month later, he married an Australian citizen born in Sierra Leone who was 10 years his senior and subsequently secured a partner visa. Within months, however, he had started a relationship with another woman and they later had a child together.

By 2018, his partner visa application was refused after the Department of Home Affairs found he and his sponsor were never in a genuine, continuing and mutually exclusive spousal relationship.

“Your comments and explanations regarding the plethora of adverse information before the department are implausible and at times contradictory, which in turn leaves you with no credibility,” the delegate said at that time.

RDQK was later caught on four occasions supplying a total of 363 grams of methylamphetamine, leading to him being sent to jail and paving the way for his deportation. But the AAT this month found he deserved to stay, given the strength of his ties to Australia – the Primary Consideration 3 of Mr Giles’ Direction 99.

AAT member William Frost found those ties and the interests of his child helped offset the considerations of community protection and expectations. “The tribunal hopes that RDQK continues to demonstrate the rehabilitation that he has shown since being released on parole in September 2020 and his strong commitment to his family and to the broader community,” he wrote.

Direction 99 also helped spare a man who had twice failed to have the AAT overturn his visa cancellation. Solomon Islands-born Jeffrey Chottu had twice had to go to the Federal Court to quash decisions handed down by the AAT in 2020 and 2023 that had affirmed that he should be deported.

The 30-year-old had an extensive criminal record, including domestic violence counts. The most disturbing involved a 2018 attack on his pregnant partner, in which Chottu attempted to strangle her, punched her in the stomach repeatedly in an attempt to kill their unborn child, pushed her to the ground and repeatedly hit her head on the floor.

AAT member Theodore Tavoularis found the “strength, nature and duration of ties” primary consideration introduced under Mr Giles’ Direction 99 weighed heavily in favour of Chouttu remaining in Australia. The man has mental health challenges, he said, while his mother is terminally ill, his sister has ovarian cancer and his child has a tumour in her brain.

It is understood Mr Giles’s office will review the new cases highlighted by The Australian.