Convicted paedophile deported to Ireland while still under investigation by Victoria Police

A convicted paedophile still under investigation by the Victoria Police has been deported to his native Ireland. Australia Border Force blamed the mix-up on the police, saying it didn’t know the man was under investigation in Victoria before it had him deported.

The 74-year-old man was jailed in Queensland on child abuse charges. He was a former Geelong Grammar student convicted of child abuse offences on four separate incidents. He was accused in the child abuse royal commission last year and was to face new charges over child abuse claims between the late ‘60s and mid-‘70s and in 1980 before he was deported to Ireland.

According to the claims, he fondled the penis of a pre-teen Geelong Grammar student while masturbating in church. He also stroked a six-year-old student’s penis in bed, and had instructed senior students to perform sexual acts in underground rooms.

His victims are worried that it could take years before he could face charges in Australia.

According to the ABF, the Victoria Police failed to notify the immigration department officials of the man’s ongoing investigation.

“The individual was not listed as having any outstanding matters with any law enforcement agencies and was subsequently removed,” a spokesman told AAP in a statement on Friday.

Under the new immigration laws, foreigners who serve time in Australian jails have their visas cancelled on character grounds. On the day of his release from the Wolston Correctional Centre on May 6, security officers escorted him onto a flight to Ireland.

Victoria Police confirmed the man, whose name has been suppressed by the royal commission, was under investigation but refused to comment further.

One victim said he received a call from the Victoria Police about the deportation, four months after he had left the country. He said he was worried that it would be more difficult to extradite the former teacher from Ireland to face the charges in Australia.

Lawyer Angela Sdrinis, who is launching civil claim against Geelong Grammar on behalf of the man’s eight victims, blamed Border Force for deporting the unnamed man.

“It’s very difficult thing to come forward in the first place and make a police complaint against child sex abuse,” she was quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald as saying. “To go through all of that only to be told, ‘Oh sorry, we temporarily lost him,’ is pretty soul destroying.”

The man was convicted of child abuse in 1987 and was only given 200 hours of community work. He received a minimum of four months in jail in 1995 after pleading guilty to exposing a child to pornography and indecently dealing with a child. He was jailed for a minimum of 10 months in 2005 after pleading guilty to two charges of child abuse. And in 2013, he was sentenced to a minimum of 12 months for six child abuse charges.