Sex offender's bid to beat deportation fails

2.50pm

A Tongan man, jailed for sex and violence offences, has failed in a bid to avoid deportation.

The Deportation Review Tribunal has found it would be contrary to the public interest for Siuvahanoa Tuipulotu to remain in this country.

It dismissed Tuipulotu's appeal and confirmed the deportation order against him.

Tuipulotu had been jailed in September 2001 after admitting representative charges of indecent assault on a girl under 12, indecent assault on a girl aged 12 to 16, and sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection, and charges of indecent assault on a woman, attempted sexual violation, assault on a female, assault with intent to injure, and wilfully attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The offending happened between 1994 and 1999, the tribunal said.

Tuipulotu had arrived in this country in 1993, had a daughter with a New Zealand resident identified by the tribunal only as "D" in 1995, been served with a removal order as an overstayer in 1997 and voluntarily returned to Tonga in January 1998.

An application for New Zealand residence had been granted in February 1998, he had returned to this country and married New Zealand resident of Tongan birth Kaufofo Taulanga. They had a son Haamonga in January 2000.

He had been sentenced to seven years six months prison when he appeared in the High Court at Auckland in September 2001. The Court of Appeal subsequently reduced the sentence to six years.

As part of his appeal against deportation Tuipulotu had said he was not guilty of any of the sex offences to which he had pleaded guilty, the tribunal said.

During his time in prison Tuipulotu had incurred seven conduct breaches, including for fighting and wilful damage, and had been reclassified as medium-high risk. He had been due for parole eligibility in June this year, with a final release date of February 28, 2005.

A Corrections Department report had said that Tuipulotu displayed arrogance and aggression when he did not get his own way , had not achieved any of his scheduled sentence plan objectives and had refused to be assessed for straight thinking.

His basis for refusing to do any of the programmes had been that only God could help him.

During the tribunal hearing, Tuipulotu had consistently displayed a lack of remorse, a refusal to take any responsibility for his offending, and had shown no insight into the impact of it, the tribunal said.

In a letter to the tribunal his wife had described Tuipulotu as hard working and a good provider and she wanted him to remain in this country so their son could have his mother and father back together as a family.

In a deportation interview she had said she wanted him to sort out his bad temper, and had described incidents in which he had been violent and had "beat me up and I had to call the police".

The tribunal found that while there may be some emotional hardship for Mrs Tuipulotu and her son should Tuipulotu be deported, it did not regard the hardship would be undue or unjust given the factors involved.

Nearly all Tuipulotu's immediate family -- his parents, nine brothers and sisters and their families -- lived in Tonga, as did his daughter who lived with his parents.

- NZPA