By Deborah Diaz and Bruce Butler
A man considered too dangerous for Australia will be deported to New Zealand - despite not having lived here since he was 10.
Ruane Baker, now aged 21, chalked up his first conviction when he was 13. Within five years he had 55 more, including armed robbery, assaulting a police officer and stealing cars, after living a life of drugs and crime on the streets of Perth.
A violent attempted car-jacking in 1997 - the first charge Baker faced as an adult - was the last straw for the Australian courts, which jailed him indefinitely.
Baker wants to stay in Australia but an appeal court has ruled that with his history of attacking people in the street, he is an unacceptable risk.
The deportation order was made despite expert evidence that sending him to a strange place unaccompanied by his family would very probably cause him to reoffend.
Under usual deportation procedures, Baker would be escorted to New Zealand and become a free man on touching down this side of the Tasman.
Australian authorities yesterday confirmed that Baker was still in jail but would not reveal the date of his deportation.
New Zealand police said there was no guarantee that Interpol or any other agency would be alerted of his arrival here.
Citizens who committed crimes overseas had every right to return here when they finished jail terms, said a spokesman.
Duncan O'Connor, the president of the appeal court that upheld the decision to deport, said he had taken into account a psychologist's view that returning Baker to New Zealand would increase the risk of his reoffending.
But there was "no doubt [Baker's] criminal history is a serious one and would be of special concern to the welfare and safety of [Australians].
"There is an unacceptable risk of recidivism that would infringe the rights of the Australian community to be protected."
* New Zealand has deported Pacific Islanders to their country of birth despite their having grown up here. Last May, an 18-year-old who took part in a gang rape was sent to Tonga when released from prison. He had lived here since age 7.
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