By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A registered child-sex offender in Dandenong last month released from immigration detention is being accused of failing to report what a judge described as “sexually charged” online chats with a 15-year-old girl.
Emran Dad, 33, unsuccessfully applied for bail at Dandenong Magistrates Court on 14 December.
He faced 13 counts of failing to comply with his reporting obligations as a registered sex offender, as well as a public trespass in refusing to leave a Services Australia office in Dandenong on 24 November.
The Afghan-born accused had been released from immigration detention on 11 November as a result of a High Court of Australia ruling that indefinite detention was unlawful.
He was arrested during a police raid of his home 24 days later.
Among his charges were failing to report to police his mobile phone service, his new email address and identities on social media platforms TikTok, Bigo, Viber, WhatsApp and Instagram.
Three girls aged 14, 15 and 16 were among his social-media followers, Detective Senior Constable Daniel Jacobi of Victoria Police told the court.
In refusing bail, magistrate Tony Burns noted Dad’s “troubling” prior sexual offences, his previous failures to meet reporting requirements and his communications with a 15-year-old.
The latter started on 7 September while Dad was still in immigration detention and continued up to his arrest, the court heard.
The online chats were “bordering on grooming” and “make it clear to me he is communicating comfortably and easily with a girl who identifies herself as 15”, Burns said.
“And the conversation is clearly … sexually charged with pictures of hearts etc in it.”
Jacobi told the hearing that Dad and the girl had discussed “going live” on TikTok.
This would potentially allow the pair to video at the same time or to exchange unrecorded messages, he said.
Defence lawyer Kate Sheridan countered that going “live” would take chats into the public realm.
Victoria Police opposed bail, claiming Dad was an unacceptable risk.
In 2012, he was convicted in Victoria of two counts of sexually penetrating a child under 16, an indecent assault of a child under 16 and inducing a child into sex work, the court heard.
As a result, Dad was jailed for three years and ordered to report for life as a registered sex offender.
He’d told a police interview at the time he had “no one else to have sex with” and thought the acts were legal based on the law in Afghanistan, Jacobi said.
In 2018, Dad was again convicted of sexual penetration of a child under 16, as well as four counts of failing to meet his reporting obligations and drug possession.
He was then taken into immigration detention, pending deportation to Afghanistan – until his release last month.
There was also a prior for recklessly causing injury and breaches of bail and a family violence intervention order, the court heard.
After Dad’s release last month, he was without money and attended Services Australia in Dandenong daily for two weeks.
On 24 November, he was angered that his welfare claim hadn’t been processed and refused a team leader’s demand for him to leave the building.
The office was closed to the public as Dad remained outside for two hours until police arrived.
He was also charged with failing to report being in the presence of children aged about 6 and 11 – who were photographed with him days after his release from detention.
The photos were taken on a “family occasion”, his lawyer Sheridan told the court.
“The family are now all aware that can’t occur.”
At the time, Dad was subject to a GPS-tracking bracelet, night curfew and daily reporting to immigration authorities.
The lawyer submitted for Dad to be bailed with extra restrictions such as a social media ban, use of only one phone with the PIN supplied to police and weekly check-ins with police.
He was also eligible for CISP, which could lead to much-needed NDIS support for his intellectual disability and mental illness, Sheridan argued.
Dad had a possible acquired brain injury from being tortured in Afghanistan in which he’d fallen into a coma several times.
Burns said he had to grapple with whether Dad’s risk of reoffending was reduced to an “acceptable level”.
“I’m not satisfied that releasing Mr Dad would make the community as safe as it could be.”
Last month, 148 detainees, including convicted criminals, were released after the High Court’s landmark ruling that indefinite immigration detention was unlawful.
Five of the criminal detainees have since been arrested across the country.
Dad was remanded to appear at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 15 January.
