A violent Sudanese-born rapist has been accused of breaching a high risk offender order just months after being controversially released from jail in Tasmania amid calls for his deportation.
Christo Brown, 28, who came to Australia with his family as a child, walked out of Hobart’s Risdon Prison on October 31 after being sentenced to eight years’ jail in 2018 for breaking into a home in Launceston in 2015 and raping a 76-year-old woman in her bed.
Tasmanian Supreme Court Chief Justice Chris Shanahan KC determined that a high risk offender order was necessary as Brown posed “an unacceptable risk of committing another serious offence”, and police allege he breached that order by consuming alcohol on January 22, The Mercury reported.
Brown appeared in Launceston Magistrates Court where Magistrate Sharon Cure granted an application by Christo’s lawyer Layne Pepper for an adjournment without plea until April 8.
The high risk offender order included a curfew from 8pm to 6am, electronic monitoring, mandatory counselling, a ban on drugs and alcohol as he had been drinking at the time of the rape, and a requirement that Brown seek permission to leave Tasmania.
Brown fled to Melbourne immediately after the attack but his DNA was found on his victim’s nightgown, and in 2018 he was extradited to Tasmania to face trial after being jailed for 277 days in Queensland for sexual assault while on bail for the Launceston rape and aggravated burglary charges.
His trial heard that his victim, who prayed for him after the rape and gave him a religious pamphlet titled Our Daily Bread, would suffer from the effects of the attack for the rest of her life.
Brown was also convicted of four counts of assault and an aggravated burglary over a separate 2015 crime, Justice Shanahan noted during his high risk offender application last year,
He also cited a prison report that found Brown had a “disregard for rules and a tendency to intimidate and make inappropriate advances towards female staff”.
“Mr Brown still presents with many of the risk factors associated with sexual and violent offending, and he is in the above average risk of future sexual offending,” the report stated.
“Therefore Mr Brown will require a high level of intervention and risk management in the community if he is to be released on parole.”
Chief Justice Shanahan determined that a high risk offender order was necessary as Brown posed “an unacceptable risk of committing another serious offence”.
Furious Tasmanians responded to the order by starting an online petition calling on Immigration Minister Tony Burke to deport Brown in order to protect public safety.
“It is with great urgency and concern for the safety of all women in Tasmania that I call upon Minister of Immigration, Tony Burke, to take decisive action by deporting Christo Brown back to Sudan,” the petition reads.
“We must set an example that violent criminals will not be allowed to remain in our community, especially when there is a credible threat of recidivism.”
Header image: Left, right, Christo Brown.
