Japanese law lecturer wins 14-year battle to stay in Australia after threatening to kill court staff and ‘mooning’ a judge
- Dr Megumi Ogawa, 52, was arrested in 2006 when her student visa expire
- She was sent to Villawood detention centre where she was on suicide watch
- The former law lecturer spent the next 14 years fighting to stay in Australia
A Japanese law lecturer who ‘mooned’ a judge while facing charges for threatening to kill court staff will remain in Australia.
Dr Megumi Ogawa, 52, won a High Court battle to stay in the country after Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton’s submission to have her deported was rejected.
Mr Dutton claimed she posed a threat to the community, but the court refused the application he submitted to appeal previous decisions to let her stay, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Megumi Ogawa in 2006 when she faced deportation for overstaying her student visa
‘In so far as the application for special leave to appeal raises any question of principle, this is not an appropriate vehicle in which to consider it,’ the High Court ruled.
Mr Dutton’s ministry was also ordered to pay her court costs.
In his Federal Court appeal in June, Mr Dutton acknowledged Ogawa may have been under stress when she made the death threats and flashed her bare bottom to the court, but said she’d made no attempt to manager her anger.
The woman represented herself in court and said Mr Dutton hadn’t taken an ’emotional intelligence’ and a ‘managing conflict’ certificate from her psychologist.
Megumi Ogawa being escorted by Federal Police from Central Local Court in 2006
The win comes after the former lecturer at University of Queensland and Melbourne University spent more than a decade embroiled in a battle with the Australian courts.
Ogawa arrived in Australia in 1999 on a student visa but was arrested in May 2006 when the visa expired.
Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton’s bid to have Dr Ogawa deported was rejected
She was sent to Villawood detention centre where she was on suicide watch for 10 weeks, the Sydney Morning Herald previously reported.
Ogawa applied for a protection visa and was released, but was arrested and charged for sending death threats to two Federal Court registrars and a court officer.
Brisbane’s District Court heard she sent the threats through 176 phone calls within a month and 83 emails within two days.
After flashing the courtroom and screaming that ‘white Australians’ were trying to kill her, she was found guilty of contempt and making threats and was sentenced to 10 months in jail.
Ogawa has now been granted to the right to seek a royal pardon for her convictions from the Queen.