May 8, 2020 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudanese refugee, 29, who fled war-torn Africa to start a new life in Australia, will be deported after committing more than FORTY crimes – including sex with a child and groping two schoolgirls at a bus stop
A refugee who fled war-torn Africa to start a new life in Australia will be deported after being found guilty of more than 40 crimes.
Guot Makuer Guot, 29 was fighting to overturn his visa cancellation on the basis his life would be in danger if he was forced back to Sudan during a hearing with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on Thursday.
The tribunal has thrown out the appeal over fears the Sudanese refugee is at high risk of committing more sex crimes.
Guot was found guilty of more than 40 crimes since he landed on Australian soil 14 years ago – from robbery and public drunkenness to sex with a minor and groping two schoolgirls at a bus stop.
The crimes spanned from Tasmania to South Australia and Victoria, and continued even after he was told he risked deportation for re-offending.
The 29-year-old musician moved to Tasmania with his mother and four siblings after fleeing the South Sudan conflict in 2006 where his soldier father was killed.
After completing school at Hobart and working for a community centre he floated from state to state visiting family members and struggling to defeat a growing addiction to alcohol, according to the tribunal review.
Guot was convicted of his first sex crime in 2015, when he was found guilty for having unlawful sex with a 14-year-old girl in South Australia.
His next sex crime was committed in June 2017, when he groped two teenage girls at a bus stop in Melbourne.
Court documents reveal he grabbed one of the girls on the breast and buttocks before locking his arms around her and pushing her against the bus stop so she couldn’t escape.
During his court appearance over the sexual assault charge Mr Makeur Guot said he said that he had not meant to scare or harm the girls, and if he had touched them in an inappropriate way, it ‘could have been because of the alcohol’.
A year later, he groped a woman on a Melbourne tram.
Guot said he had been asking the woman for directions, and didn’t remember touching her.
‘I may have been sleepy or drunk. I don’t know if I grabbed her or not. If I touched her, it was by accident.’
His visa was cancelled in 2019 for failing to pass the character test, but he attempted to overturn the decision through the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
He argued his safety was at risk if he returned to Sudan and his entire family now lives in Australia.
After consideration of Guot’s circumstances and difficult upbringing the tribunal dismissed the appeal on the grounds of his serious criminal history, and concerns around reoffending.
Senior tribunal member Donald Morris acknowledged while Guot had struggled with alcohol problems and periods of homelessness he had failed to turn his behaviour around.
‘It is saddening that, having made an initially good start on settling in Australia with his family, completing his schooling and starting to develop his musical abilities, the Applicant seems to have abandoned that progress and instead embarked on a path hallmarked by crime and, unfortunately, sometimes sexually based crime,’ he said.
Mr Morris said it was ‘starkly depressing’ Guot continued offending after his 2015 conviction and described the groping incidents as ‘completely unacceptable conduct’.
‘The Tribunal takes particular account of the Court’s finding that Mr Makeur Guot is at a high risk of committing further sexually based offences. I also conclude he is at a real risk of committing other offences.’
