Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has vowed to deport convicted child sex offender back to Iraq. “This bloke has no right being here. He’s abused the generosity of a country that gave him a new start – it was absolutely appalling,” Morrison told Sunrise saying he was ‘sickened’ by the refugee’s actions.
The Prime Minister’s comments have come after a New South Wales District Court sent Al Bayati to jail for four-and-a-half years’ jail, with a non-parole period of two-and-a-half years. “Once he’s been released from jail, he’ll go immediately into detention and we’ll deport him from there,” Morrison explained. It is understood Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton will formally begin the process of cancelling Al Bayati’s visa.
Who is Al Bayati and what is the incident?
Mohammad Hassan Al Bayati, 30, is an Iraqi refugee who arrived in Australia in 2011 by boat, and was given a permanent protection visa to stay. In 2016, when Al Bayati was working as a security guard at the Homebush DFO shopping centre in western Sydney, sexually assaulted a three year old toddler. The young toddler spoke of her assault to her father, once home. The parents immediately reported the incident to the police.
Earlier in 2019, a court proved Al Bayati of sexual assault – the court revealed Al Bayati had led the three year old to a stairway (away from surveillance cameras). Spending an estimated eleven minutes, the court heart that Al Bayati touched the young girl’s underwear and exposed himself to receive sexual gratification. He later got the toddler back to the play centre he had taken her away from – reunited her with a crying seven year old sister, and then berated the mother for not attending to her children. The mother had left the children in the play centre while she did some Christmas shopping.
The mum of the young girl said ‘the incident has deeply affected her child’. “This tragedy squeezed life, positive outlook, trust and happiness out of us in a way that is hard to describe,” the mother told Sydney’s Downing Centre.
other spoke of the devastating impact the ordeal had on her child.
The mum said their peaceful family life had been “destroyed” by Al Bayati’s behaviour and their daughter was still having nightmares almost three years after it.
The mum said the family were working to teach their daughter to trust men and that “not every man in uniform is a predator”.
