An obese Indian paedophile has been spared deportation after arguing that he would face harm or discrimination in India due to being a homosexual.
The 39-year-old, anonymised as GGRL, had his permanent visa cancelled in November last year due to a child abuse material possession conviction from 2016, but challenged the decision in the Administrative Review Tribunal last week.
The tribunal granted the sex offender’s request for anonymity after general member Andrew Maryniak KC found identifying him could “compromise” his employment and expose him to “other detriment in the form of harassment and the like”.
The tribunal also accepted GGRL’s claims that he “inadvertently” downloaded child abuse and bestiality videos while attempting to download adult gay porn before watching due to his slow internet speeds at the time, whereas now he watches “live stream”.
“Whilst the internet may be different now, back in 2015 it does not seem possible for the Applicant to have refined or narrowed his search to such an extent so as to guarantee no offending pornographic videos would be part of such a search,” Mr Maryniak said in his judgement.
“The Tribunal is satisfied on the evidence that the Applicant did not at anytime have a desire to watch the offending material but notes that he did plead guilty for knowingly possessing it.”
He also took into account that GGRL was not jailed for the crime and instead fined just $2,000, and accepted his claims that he offended while suffering from “delayed grief” from the deaths a couple of years earlier of a grandfather and uncle, and was depressed about being obese.
GGRL testified that “being overweight is to be dead in the gay world”, claimed to have suffered “online discrimination” due to his weight, and felt that “few if any would be attracted to him as an overweight Indian man”.
Mr Maryniak noted GGRL was “in a very unfortunate space at the time of the 2015 offending” and was “overweight, attempting to deal with his repressed sexuality, turning to alcohol and pornography for attempted relief”, but was now a “different person” and at a “very low risk of reoffending”.
The sex offender had not applied for a protection visa, but submitted that he feared harm if returned to India, saying he “would not be accepted in Indian society which is more conservative”, and that he was “at risk of being assaulted and/or significantly discriminated against” and that authorities would not protect him.
A delegate for the immigration minister argued GGRL would not face impediments if deported, pointing out he had recently returned to visit his mother and travelled overseas on an annual basis, and could use his IT experience to find employment.
But the tribunal found GGRL would be living with his mother, who “does not know of and is unlikely to be accepting of his sexuality”, making his sexuality and the need to hide it an impediment, that he would have “significant language and cultural barriers”, and has an “introvert nature”.
“The Tribunal is satisfied that those [considerations] in favour of visa cancellation are outweighed by the consideration against such cancellation. Therefore, the Applicant’s visa should not be cancelled,” Mr Maryniak concluded.
The decision comes after dozens of others of serious criminals had their visas restored by the tribunal in recent months, including killers, paedophiles, rapists and drug smugglers.
Header image: A homosexual flag (US Gov – public domain).
