The man was served a deportation liability notice which he appealed on humanitarian grounds, but the New Zealand Immigration and Protection Tribunal found there were no exceptional circumstances of a humanitarian nature and declined the appeal.
According to the tribunal’s recent decision, the builder and farm worker first visited New Zealand on a 90-day visitor’s visa in December 2018 and returned a year later on an essential skills work visa.
In November 2020, he was granted a further work visa, and after that expired he applied in November 2023 for a work visa based on his partnership with a woman, also a UK citizen.
Immigration New Zealand served him with a deportation liability notice soon after he was sentenced to home detention last year.
The circumstances of his offending are contained in a psychologist’s report the tribunal referred to in its decision.
It said the man had downloaded a dating app and had started messaging a young woman in 2021. They messaged each other for one to two weeks before meeting at a bar, where they drank and the victim then invited the man back to her place.
They joined another couple in a spa pool at the premises, continued drinking and then all engaged in sexual behaviour, including kissing, touching and sexual intercourse.
The victim became ill and excused herself, with the man then following her into the bathroom.
Other people at the residence interrupted when they heard what was happening in the bathroom. The victim was then helped into the shower and went to the bedroom to get some sleep.
The man was said to have interpreted this as “an invitation” so followed her into the bedroom, where the victim was then described as resisting his sexual advances.
He persisted, and the victim was clearer in her resistance, at which point the man stopped his behaviour and left the property.
A second victim at the property also accused him of sexual assault, which he denied, but was later found guilty of. He told police that while he thought the evening “progressed in a different direction to what he anticipated”, he did not recognise that he had behaved in an offensive manner and was therefore shocked when the police spoke to him in March 2022.
In August 2023, he was sentenced in a South Island district court to 12 months’ home detention, taking into account his guilty plea, his age, remorse, the circumstances of the offences, emotional harm reparation payments to his victims, the views of the victims, and the absence of any previous criminal offences.
The sentence also took into account that he had a suitable address for home detention, being the home where he lived with his partner, and that he was unlikely to re-offend.
The man appealed the deportation liablity notice a month after it was served, on grounds advanced by his lawyer including that he was highly regarded by his employer, who continued to support him, and that he had strong connections to New Zealand, including through his two-year relationship with his partner.
Immigration New Zealand did not accept that there were good reasons why deportation should not proceed.
The tribunal accepted that his present employment was specialised and that his contribution was highly valued by his employer, but this did not constitute an exceptional humanitarian circumstance.
It said in weighing up all factors, he had not met the high threshold required for exceptional circumstances of a humanitarian nature and declined the appeal.
He has a legal obligation to serve his 12-month sentence and has been granted a work visa until November 2024, to allow him time to pack up and leave.
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.
