Refugee rapist attacks for fourth time

An Iraqi refugee convicted of raping a student should have been stripped of his citizenship and sent home after being jailed for three brutal sex attacks on other women, his latest victim says.

The woman, who is traumatised by the brutal rape, is angry and wants answers as to why Akeel Hassan Abbas Al Baiiaty was able to stay. "He should have been thrown out of this country after he served his time," she said.

A quota refugee from Iraq, Al Baiiaty, 35, has described himself as a loner who only wanted a girlfriend. When he could not find one he lured prostitutes and raped them.

But he also attacked another woman: a 20-year-old Australian student - his latest victim.

Last night a Wellington District Court jury took 3 1/2 hours to find Al Baiiaty guilty of sexual violation by rape, abduction with intent to have sex and assault.

He has been remanded in custody until December 14 for the judge to consider the Crown's application for preventive detention.

The Dominion Post reports that:

* Internal Affairs did not ask for his citizenship to be revoked, meaning he could not be deported.

* He was paroled to a family that did not want him and was thrown out after a week.

* He moved to a hostel, which was approved by the Probation Service, but the hostel was not told he was on parole for rape.

* Police were called when he harassed women at the hostel but did not realise his criminal past because he gave them a false name.

* Community probation lost track of him when he left the hostel.

* He moved into a student hostel despite not being a student.

Previously, Al Baiiaty was sentenced to nine years in prison for the rape of two Auckland prostitutes and assault with intent to rape a third.

Two months after he was released, he attacked his fourth victim, who says those who could have prevented the assault had failed.

"If somebody had done their job right this would never have happened. And it needs to be more than just a slap on the wrist. I'd hate to pick up the paper one day and read that the same thing has happened to some other girl, because some department didn't do their job properly."

The officer in charge of the case, Detective Scott Hunter, described the rape as one of the most brutal he had investigated. "It is beyond comprehension that a man could do this to someone else. It should not have happened and could have been avoided."

Last October, Al Baiiaty was stripped of his citizenship - granted in November 1997 - on the grounds he had not told the truth about his character.

He had committed his first rapes in between signing his application and the citizenship ceremony.

Had his citizenship been revoked when he was sentenced to prison for the rapes, the Immigration Service could have applied for his deportation. But it did not happen.

Internal Affairs, the department responsible for citizenship status, said that in such cases the onus was on individuals to advise of a change in their circumstances.

Al Baiiaty served 6 1/2 years of his sentence. Shortly before his release he gave the Corrections Department an address in Porirua, where he could live.

The address was passed to the Community Probation Service for checking for suitability. However, the Dominion Post reported it understood the service was told Al Baiiaty was not wanted there.

Despite that, on December 15 last year - a few weeks before his final release date - he went to live at the house. By Christmas Eve, he had packed his bags and was delivered by a relative to a hostel in Porirua.

Four days after moving in, Al Baiiaty began making advanaces on the women residents, grabbing them and making sexually explicit suggestions.

By January 4 the residents had had enough and he was evicted.

The hostel's manager, who says he was never told that Al Baiiaty was a sex offender on parole, called the police to complain about his sexually aggressive tenant.

Police asked Al Baiiaty about his identity, but he misspelled his last name, meaning a check failed to bring up his parole status, the manager said. He was confined to his room for the night under a curfew and the next morning he was gone.

Homeless, Al Baiiaty went to a student hostel and was given a room. He was the only non-student living there.

The probation service did not know he had moved.

There he continued his pattern of harassing women residents.

On February 8, he lured his victim to his room by yelling for help. He dragged her inside, locked the door and raped her.

- NZPA