Child molester who sexually abused his stepdaughter is allowed to stay in Australia

A man who raped his 14-year-old stepdaughter while her mother was giving birth to her sibling in hospital has been allowed to stay in Australia under new rules.

The 37-year-old New Zealander, known as CHCY, was found guilty in 2022 of nine counts of “indecent treatment,” including the rape of the teenager.

After raping his stepdaughter, the man went to her room twice, climbed into her bed and rubbed her body.

In handing down the verdict, the judge told CHCY that he would lose his Australian visa and “possibly face deportation,” Sky News reports.

Following an order by Immigration Minister Andrew Giles in January 2023, the Australian Appeals Tribunal (AAT) overturned a decision made in March to cancel CHCY’s visa.

Mr Giles’s direction requires decision-makers to consider whether a foreign national who commits a crime spent his or her formative years in Australia.

Since the perpetrator had only moved to Australia at the age of 17, the AAT ruled that the New Zealander had spent his formative years abroad.

“The Court concludes that CHCY has spent the majority of his life in Australia, working full-time and contributing to the tax system, the community and his family,” the AAT said in its judgment.

“The Court attaches importance to this consideration and notes that Instruction (99) clearly states that non-citizens in CHCY’s situation should be shown tolerance.”

Direction 99, issued by Mr Giles in January 2023, calls on the AAT to make “ties with Australia” the primary consideration when deciding visa applications.

Since then, 35 offenders – including CHCY – have had their AAT results overturned and been allowed to remain in Australia.

This prompted Shadow Immigration Minister Dan Tehan to call on Mr Giles to explain to the Australian public why he refused to repeal Directive 99.

“To rape a stepdaughter while your partner is giving birth in hospital – that shows that the Department’s directive (99) is clearly failing,” Tehan said.

“I don’t think there could be a worse example of how this ministry directive has clearly failed and must therefore be withdrawn.”

“And that’s why Andrew Giles has to come forward today and explain why he won’t take it back.”

The incident occurred after a man who was released from immigration detention following a successful appeal to the AAT allegedly murdered a man just weeks later.

Emmanuel Saki, 29, who came from Sudan with his family at the age of 12, was charged with murder after stabbing 22-year-old Bosco Minyurano to death on May 12.

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Because Saki had come to Australia as a child, the court found that he had “significant” ties to Australia and overturned the cancellation of his visa.

“The Minister has accepted that … significant weight should be given to the fact that the applicant has been ordinarily resident in Australia since his youth and has accepted that this overriding consideration is in the applicant’s favour,” wrote AAT Vice-President Stephen Boyle.

“I agree that this is the case.”

Police will allege in court that Saki stabbed Mr Minyurano to death in a park on Mortimer Road in Acacia Ridge, south Brisbane, shortly after midnight on Mother’s Day.

Saki’s visa was initially cancelled after he failed the character test, which was triggered by several violent attacks that led to a prison sentence in 2017 and 2018.

He was convicted of strangling a person until unconscious, assault and battery.

Mr Giles is openly sympathetic to the plight of refugees. In 2001, he acted as a lawyer representing 433 asylum seekers attempting to reach Australian territory on board the Norwegian freighter MV Tampa.