A convicted drug trafficker and sex predator who injected ice into a teenage girl who he was having a sexual relationship with has avoided deportation because of his ‘good character’.
Adam Carey, 49, who lives in Queensland but was born in New Zealand, won the right to Australian citizenship in a case in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) in June.
He has 39 criminal convictions to his name and was jailed for trafficking drugs in 2002, before he received another prison term for having sex with a 15-year-old girl.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton in 2016 rejected Carey’s application for citizenship on character grounds, but the AAT reversed that decision last month.
A convicted drug trafficker and sex predator who injected a teenage girl with ice and had a sexual relationship with her has avoided deportation because of his ‘good character’ (stock)
In a ruling published Tuesday, the tribunal found Carey’s ‘past offences do not preclude a finding of current good character’.
‘They may not even materially inform an assessment of a person’s current character and fitness,’ AAT senior member Peter Taylor SC wrote.
Carey’s ‘domestic world fell apart’ after his partner’s son was murdered in 1999, Mr Taylor said.
‘His carnal knowledge offence and his significant drug use, occurred in the aftermath of that traumatic change in his life,’ he wrote.
In 2002, Carey introduced a 15-year-old girl to ‘ice’ and began a sexual relationship with her – at the same time supplying her with cannabis, the ruling states.
‘He injected her with methamphetamine. She reported the incident to the police and he was subsequently arrested,’ Mr Taylor wrote.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton in 2016 rejected Carey’s application for citizenship on character grounds
Carey was jailed for five years in 2005 after pleading guilty to unlawful carnal knowledge of an underage girl.
He married his Australian girlfriend a decade later. When they returned from a honeymoon to the Philippines and Bali he failed to disclose his convictions.
Carey’s New Zealand visa was cancelled and he was sent to immigration detention on Christmas Island.
In July 2017, he received a formal commendation letter on behalf of the Australian Border Force from a senior officer stationed at the detention centre.
The letter described Carey’s behaviour as providing ‘a positive role model for other detainees’ and evidencing ‘positive leadership’.
Carey introduced a 15-year-old girl to ‘ice’ and began a sexual relationship with her (stock)
Carey has since been released from detention.
‘I am satisfied that Mr Carey is, at the present time, a person of good character,’ the decision to grant him citizenship states.
Mr Dutton fumed at the ruling, which he said he could not overturn.
‘This is yet another example of the AAT making decisions that are not in line with community standards,’ he said, according to The Courier Mail.
‘I have been fighting for changes to the Citizenship Act for over a year to prevent cases like this, but Labor won’t support it.’