Thomas Scott Gbojueh, a Liberian refugee in Australia who had sex with a 12-year-old girl less than four months after arrival avoided deportation for seven years, his victim became pregnant and needed abortion, he was found guilty in 2009.
Gbojueh’s visa was cancelled in 2011 but delayed deportation until July this year, according to the Daily Mail, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton slammed Administrative Appeals Tribunal Gbojueh made a series of appeals and had his visa reinstated multiple times
He was allowed to stay in Australia for seven years after having his visa cancelled for having sex with a 12-year-old girl.
Thomas Scott Gbojueh, 50, who left the girl pregnant and in need of an abortion, was deported back to his native Liberia last week by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.
Gbojueh pleaded guilty to twice having sex with the underage girl, once less than four months after arriving in Australia in 2006, but was able to remain in the country.
The 12-year-old was the daughter of a woman Gbojueh was in a relationship with at the time, and later terminated the pregnancy.
A series of appeals lodged with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the Federal Court saw his visa reinstated several times since it was first cancelled in 2011.
Mr. Dutton slammed the AAT, and said judicial system needs to be more consistent in deporting criminals with cancelled visas in a ‘timely manner’.
‘I want to make sure that we get a better consistency out of the judicial system,’ Mr Dutton told Daily Mail Australia.
‘We have seen countless examples over a long period of time now where we’ve had criminals who have had their visas cancelled only to be reinstated by the AAT.
‘I think we need to have a reflection of community standards.
‘We need to listen to the public because people aren’t happy with a system where people escape the consequences of their criminal actions.’
Gbojueh arrived in Australia from West Africa in November 2006, and was jailed for 27 months three years later.
In 2011 then-immigration minister Chris Bowen cancelled his visa and Gbojueh was detained.
But less than two months later the AAT ordered Gbojueh be released and reinstated his visa.
The tribunal ruled Gbojueh, a member of Liberia’s Kranh ethnic group, had a ‘well-founded fear of persecution’, due to association with former dictator Samuel Doe.
Mr Bowen then cancelled the visa again in July 2011, but this time the Federal Court stepped in to reverse the decision.
In 2014 Scott Morrison again ordered Gbojueh’s visa cancelled, but the refugee again sought judicial review.
This time the Federal Court found in favour of the minister, but Gbojueh again asked for the decision to be reviewed.
After that appeal failed, Gbojueh applied for a protection visa in 2016, but when it was refused he took the case back to the AAT.
In April 2017 the AAT upheld the refusal, but Gbojueh was not expelled from the country for another 14 months.
The Liberian refugee also appealed his 2008 rape conviction and six-and-a-half-year jail term, serving a shorter sentence for having sex with a person under 14.
Source: Daily Mail UK
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