By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A registered child-sex offender from Dandenong who was arrested weeks after being released from immigration detention has lost a second quest for bail.
Emran Dad, 33, is facing 13 counts of failing to comply with his reporting obligations as a registered sex offender.
He had allegedly failed to report online chats with girls last year as well as his mobile phone service, email address and identities on five social media platforms.
He was also charged with public trespass in refusing to leave a Services Australia office in Dandenong on 24 November.
During his bid for release on 29 January, Dad consented to closer monitoring under a five-year prohibition order that banned him from social media and from contacting females under 18.
But in refusing bail, Dandenong magistrate Fran Medina said she had concerns whether Dad would comply with the order.
Hence he presented an unacceptable risk to the safety and welfare of “young vulnerable children”.
Detective Senior Constable Daniel Jacobi of Greater Dandenong CIU had earlier told the court that three girls aged 14, 15 and 16 were following Dad’s TikTok account.
In a group livestream with the 16-year-old on 3 November, Dad allegedly told her “you look so beautiful in those glasses”.
She replied she was 16, and other users also commented about her young age, Jacobi told the court.
“No, she’s not,” Dad allegedly said. “She looks so beautiful in those glasses.”
Later he was said to have followed the girl’s TikTok account and made a livestream request to her.
Jacobi said that in the recorded conversation, she commented that “you look so funny … sitting on your bunk beds.”
Dad allegedly replied that he was locked up. “This is like a prison. This is like a detention centre.”
“Because you’re broke,” the girl replied.
“What are you on about?” Dad reportedly said. “You actually come in here making fun of me while I’m sitting on a bunk bed.
“Guess what … there’s a spot empty for you in here. If you want to move in, there’s no rent. You can move in and sleep on the top.”
Jacobi said the girl provided a recording to police and was “quite concerned she’d been speaking to him”.
The detective had yet to directly contact the 15-year-old girl from WA and the 14-year-old from NSW but “we do believe those ages are correct”.
Dad had told police that “he wasn’t aware of what social media was”, despite being “quite prevalent” on TikTok and Instagram, Jacobi said.
“Police believe that the accused is a significant risk to the sexual safety of the community, particularly young vulnerable children.”
Jacobi cited Dad’s prior convictions in 2012 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.
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.
As a result, he was taken into immigration detention, pending deportation to Afghanistan.
There was also a prior for recklessly causing injury and breaches of bail and a family violence intervention order, the court heard.
He is also currently on a good-behaviour bond for causing harm to a Commonwealth official in 2022.
The Afghan-born accused was released from 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.
Defence lawyer Kate Sheridan said if bailed, Dad was eligible to CISP and NDIS support for his significant intellectual disability.
She told the court that Dad wasn’t an unacceptable risk because of the prohibition order, his stable address with his mother and strong supervision from his family, including denying Dad access to a smart phone.
The family had claimed they were previously unaware about Dad being restricted from social media.
However Medina was concerned about his mother’s lack of “fluency with technology” and that she may not be able to effectively monitor him.
The magistrate noted the seriousness of the alleged new offending, his past criminal convictions and failures to comply with court orders and reporting obligations.
He had “poor insight” into his intellectual disability, which raised concerns about his ability to comply with the prohibition order, Medina said.
Dad had earlier unsuccessfully applied for bail at Dandenong Magistrates Court on 14 December.
In November, 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 13 February.
