Chinese paedophile spared deportation due to ‘impact’ on depressed wife

A Chinese immigrant paedophile has been allowed to stay in Australia after a tribunal decided the negative effects on his mentally ill wife and young daughter outweighed the protection and expectations of the community.

Administrative Appeals Tribunal general member Rachel Da Costa revoked the IT worker’s visa cancellation at a hearing in Sydney earlier this month under immigration minister Tony Burke’s Direction 110, which has allowed dozens of serious criminals to avoid deportation in recent months.

Ms Da Costa, who anonymised the 42-year-old child sex offender as PWNN, found that while the community would expect him to be deported, he was a low risk of reoffending, while forcing him to return to China would impact his depressed Taiwanese wife, and would not be in the best interests of his five-year-old child.

The tribunal heard PWNN arrived in Australia in 2009 after being sponsored by his mother, who was given citizenship a year later, but in May last year had his visa cancelled on character grounds after being sentenced to just nine months’ jail with a four-month non-parole period for possessing child abuse material.

The material, which was found on his computer, was of the most extreme category, and a psychologist found he had “at least a passing sexual interest in children at the time”, but was “emotionally unaware”.

PWNN also told the psychologist that he wasn’t actively looking for child abuse material, but downloaded it by accident and was too lazy to delete it.

The tribunal heard that after completing his sentence PWNN was taken to immigration detention, where he has been able to do his IT job remotely, but that if deported to China he would not be able to continue working for his current company.

PVMM’s wife, who obtained Australian citizenship despite speaking “very little English”, asked the tribunal to allow him to remain in Australia as deporting him would cause her “extreme financial and emotional hardship” because she and their daughter had “no intention of moving to China”.

The same psychologist diagnosed her with a major depressive disorder and told the tribunal he was concerned she might commit suicide if her husband was deported.

“I note [the psychologist]’s observations about suicide risk. I find that the applicant’s wife has no meaningful support from friends or family in Australia other than the applicant’s mother, and that she is socially isolated, including due to her limited capacity with English,” Ms Da Costa found.

“I find that if the applicant were removed from Australia the financial impact on the applicant’s wife and daughter would be negative. I also accept that the applicant’s wife and daughter are Australian citizens and the applicant’s wife does not intend to move to China.”

She also noted that aside from work relationships with colleagues, PVMM had not developed any other particular ties to the Australian community during his 16 years in the country.

The tribunal heard PVMM’s daughter had been adversely emotionally affected by being separated from her father, fears her mother will be arrested, and was having trouble regulating her emotions in school, although the same psychologist said that could be due to the “poor mood” of her mother.

“I find that the effect of separation from the applicant is likely to have a significant negative impact on his daughter despite her young age and their ability to maintain contact primarily by electronic means would not be an adequate substitute for the physical presence of her father and will not be in her best interests,” Ms Da Costa found.

“There is no evidence that the applicant’s daughter has been, or is at risk of being, subject to, or exposed to, family violence perpetrated by the applicant, or has otherwise been abused or neglected by the applicant in any way, whether physically, sexually or mentally.”

“I find that [the protection] and the expectations of the Australian community are outweighed by the primary considerations of the best interests of the applicant’s young daughter, along with the strength, nature and duration of the applicant’s ties to Australia, in particular the impact of the decision on his wife.”

Ministerial Direction 110, which has been maintained by Mr Burke since 2024, requires the tribunal to take into account community protection, family violence, ties to Australia, the best interests of minor children, community expectations, legal consequences, impediments if removed, and impact on Australian business interests which deciding whether to revoke a visa cancellation.

This year alone it has been used to restore the visas of a rapist Iraqi drug smuggler, an African refugee who sexually assaulted his nine-year-old niece, a Chinese wife-killer, an Ethiopian rapist, an obese homosexual Indian paedophile, an Iranian drug smuggler, a killer Sri Lankan driver, and a Sudanese refugee who killed an Aussie teenager.

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