Court backs Bowen in genetics ruling on giant

IMMIGRATION Minister Chris Bowen has won Federal Court backing to consider genetic traits when deporting foreigners, citing a 2.1m tall, 200kg criminal's "gigantism" as an unacceptable threat to the national interest.

IMMIGRATION Minister Chris Bowen has won Federal Court backing to consider genetic traits when deporting foreigners, citing a 2.1m tall, 200kg criminal's "gigantism" as an unacceptable threat to the national interest.

The case arose after Mr Bowen invoked his ministerial powers to overrule the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which had ordered a reprieve for Haydon Harlem Tewao, a New Zealander whose visa was cancelled because he was jailed over a robbery in 2010.

The tribunal found in May that Tewao was unlikely to reoffend, having shown remorse for the crime which it said was out of character for him.

"Mr Tewao stands at seven feet tall. He is a huge man, 26 years old, with shoulders like buttresses and legs like pylons. His hands, as fists, resemble demolition balls," the tribunal said of the man, who weighs about 200kg. "Yet Mr Tewao, or 'Tiny' as he is known, seems for all his mountainous bulk a gentle man. He stands as if in apology for the space he takes up."

Mr Bowen rejected the tribunal's decision. Tewao's "exceptionally large" physique meant any risk of recidivism presented an unacceptable threat to the Australian community, he said. "I took into account that the above crime involved an unprovoked and brutal attack on another man, that it was committed with another offender and that Mr Tewao is an exceptionally large man whose role was to be the 'enforcer' in the offence," he wrote.

Tewao appealed to the Federal Court, arguing Mr Bowen could not consider his size as a discrete factor when forming his opinion. But the court last month backed the minister, saying his size "played a role in the commission of the offence and contributed to the brutality of the attack".

"No doubt that is why he (Mr Bowen) felt that a low-moderate risk of reoffending was too high a risk to take in this case," judge Anna Katzman said in a December 23 decision published last week.

In overturning moves by Mr Bowen's department to deport Tewao, the tribunal also noted the offender's aim to avoid following the footsteps of his grandfather, a New Zealand gangland figure, among reasons he should remain in Australia.

The tribunal in May also noted his demonstrated interest in art and opera "so foreign to the world he grew up in".

"He is said to be mildly intellectually disabled, but his words occasionally catch his thoughts and form a comment so insightful or a connection so nimble that one must play the words over to be sure they were his."