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Security guard who assaulted girl, 3, at shopping centre to be deported

Scott Morrison has vowed to deport an Iraqi security guard who was jailed over the indecent assault of a three-year-old girl at the shopping centre where he worked.

Mohammad Hassan Al Bayati took the child from the DFO Homebush playground, down a fire exit and into a locked stairwell a week before Christmas in 2016.

After a NSW District Court jury found Al Bayati exposed his penis and touched the girl's underwear during 11 minutes away from surveillance cameras, Judge John Pickering on Friday jailed him for four-and-a-half years.

Mohammed Al Bayati in questioning with his arms folded.
Al Bayati has continuously denied the crime. Source: NSW Police/ Nine News

Al Bayati, who arrived in Australia “illegally” in 2011 by boat, and later handed a permanent protection visa under Labor’s rule, will be ejected from Australia under a law which Scott Morrison introduced as Immigration Minister in 2014.

Under the law, the visas of non-citizens are cancelled when jailed for 12 months or more for a serious crime.

“There is no place for him in Australia under our government’s tough border protection regimen,” Mr Morrison told The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday.

Al Bayati leads the girl down a corridor at the Homebush shopping centre.
Al Bayati leads the girl down a corridor at the shopping centre. Source: Nine News

“It’s abhorrent and unacceptable that a young child was terrorised by someone that was granted protection in our country.”

Mr Morrison confirmed Al Bayati will be sent back to Iraq.

Speaking on Channel Nine’s Today Show on Thursday, he said Al Bayati was one of 6,500 who turned up “willy nilly” the year of his arrival.

“We will be following that process [of cancelling Al Bayati’s visa] and the Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton will be moving on that over the course of today and we will be accelerating that process,” he announced.

Al Bayati had responded to a report of an unattended and distressed girl at the centre's playground when he took the girl by the hand and walked her towards the fire exit.

Scott Morrison has confirmed Al Bayati will be deported from Australia. Source: AAP
Scott Morrison has confirmed Al Bayati will be deported from Australia. Source: AAP

The guard, who still denies the crimes, later returned her to the playground and berated the waiting mother.

Police only became involved after the girl, who cannot be named as she is a child victim, told her father later that day that Al Bayati showed her his "needle" and "tried to kiss my bum bum".

Police later found Al Bayati’s DNA on the girl’s underwear.

"The gall of the offender to lecture the mother about the dangers and risks of leaving her in the play area, when he ended up being the greatest risk, is one of the most curious parts in this matter, Judge Pickering said.

With AAP

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