An Ethiopian rapist and repeat violent offender has been ruled eligible for an Australian visa after a tribunal found his crimes were caused by a mental illness which is now under control.
The 44-year-old was refused a protection visa in 2024 after it was determined he was a “danger to the Australian community” because of his long and serious criminal history, but he successfully challenged the decision in the Administrative Review Tribunal on Wednesday.
The drug and alcohol-addicted sex offender, anonymised by the tribunal as BYMD, came to Australia in 2000 on a refugee visa, was first convicted of criminal offences in 2003, and in 2007 was jailed for five years and seven months in the County Court of Victoria for raping his housemate.
But he was not deported after serving his sentence, and went on to be convicted of unlawful assault in 2018, and recklessly cause injury to his ex-partner in a “very serious crime of family violence” in 2019.
Then in 2020 he broke into a woman’s apartment and sexually assaulted her, but was sentenced to just 12 months’ jail and placed on the sex offenders register for life when a magistrate took into account BYMD’s diagnosis of “schizoaffective disorder”, which was made in preparation for sentencing.
After serving his sentence BYMD had his visa cancelled and was transferred to immigration detention. He then successfully appealed the cancellation in 2022 and was released back into the community, only to be charged with affray over a 2020 incident.
He was remanded in custody, but then got a bridging visa, was granted bail, returned to immigration detention, and ultimately escaped with a fine of $800.
In November 2023 he applied for a protection visa, which was refused in December 2024, but at the same time he was granted another bridging visa and released into the community again.
Tribunal general member Andrew Maryniak KC noted in his decision that BYMD had not reoffended since his release and called the 2020 mental health diagnosis a “real turning point”.
Mr Maryniak took into account the 2020 diagnosis and the fact that it was “embraced by the sentencing magistrate” in determining BYMD’s offending was caused by his mental illness, and relied on testimony from expert psychiatrist Dr Prem Chopra that he was not a risk of reoffending.
Dr Chopra told the tribunal BYMD “met the diagnostic criteria for schizoaffective disorder, with a dual diagnosis of methylamphetamine use disorder and alcohol use disorder” but was not currently abusing either substance as the related disorders were in “early remission”.
“On the basis of his recent history and current mental state examination, [BYMD] does not present as being at current risk of committing any offence against a member of the Australian community,” Dr Chopra said.
“[BYMD] is currently not experiencing symptoms of mood disturbance or psychosis that would result in impairment in his judgement.
“There is a potential risk that [BYMD] may suffer from a relapse of schizoaffective disorder in the future, particularly in the setting of non-adherence with prescribed medications and substance use.”
Mr Maryniak noted BYMD had been homeless and relapsed into drug and alcohol use on several occasions in 2025, but that he had “demonstrated help-seeking behaviour” and not reoffended, and found he was “currently stable and well-supported, abstinent from drugs and alcohol and taking his medication”.
“[BYMD] has not been a danger to the Australian community since 2020 and on the evidence before the Tribunal it is satisfied that he is not a present danger to the Australian community nor is he likely to be one in the future,” he concluded.
“The objective evidence together with the expert professional opinion of Dr Chopra supports such a conclusion. On the evidence [BYMD] has learnt from his numerous and serious past mistakes.
“[He] now has the ‘building blocks’, insight and proven strategies to continue and maintain his new life trajectory, having legitimate remorse for past wrongs, and wishes to pursue part-time then full-time work, once he has moved beyond this review application and the focus which it has demanded of him.”
Mr Maryniak set aside the protection visa refusal decision and remitted the case for reconsideration.
In last March Mr Maryniak spared an obese Indian homosexual paedophile deportation, while dozens of other serious criminals have also had their visas restored by the tribunal in recent months, including killers, paedophiles, rapists and drug smugglers.
Header image: Stock photo (Sherise Van Dyk on Unsplash).
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