7 days ago
'Community safety failure': Albanese government under fire after freed immigration detainee accused of brutal assault against 'innocent' 62-year-old man
An immigration detainee has been accused of a vicious assault which left the alleged victim with life threatening injuries.
The man belongs to the cohort—including murderers and sex offenders—which was freed into the community following the landmark NZYQ High Court ruling.
At least 28 former immigration detainees have been charged with federal offences since the reissuing of bridging visas in 2024.
According to the Herald Sun, Friday Yokoju, 43, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Monday charged with intentionally causing serious injury.
'Homicide Squad detectives have charged a man following a critical injury assault in Footscray,' Acting Senior Sergeant Julie-Anne Newman said on Monday
'The 43-year-old man has been charged with intentionally cause serious injury … A 62-year-old Footscray man was taken to hospital with critical injuries.
'The charges follow an assault at the intersection of Nicholson and Paisley streets on 15 June about 10am.'
Witnesses, who spoke to The Age, alleged Yokoju was repeatedly stomping on the victim's head when Australian Border Force officers intervened.
Yokoju was apparently one of the immigration detainees released into the community following a landmark High Court ruling, known as the NZYQ decision.
He is understood to have been on a bridging visa and was being electronically monitored at the time of the alleged assault.
Shadow home affairs minister Andrew Hastie described the case as a 'shocking attack' and accused the Albanese government of failing to use preventative detention powers.
'This is another massive community safety failure by the Albanese government,' Mr Hastie said in a statement on Monday.
'This shocking attack is exactly the kind of scenario we sought to prevent when the parliament rushed through preventative detention powers for the NZYQ cohort.
'The government has not made a single application to keep these dangerous criminals off our streets."
The Department of Home Affairs said it was aware of the arrest of a person on a bridging visa but declined to comment further.
The government invested $255 million into a joint initiative between the federal police and border force to monitor the cohort in 2024.
However, the released detainees have continued to reoffend, with at least 28 individuals charged with almost 100 federal offences.
The Migration Act stipulated visa holders convicted of offences involving minors must not go within 200m of a school, but 13 have been charged relating to requirements not to go near schools.
There were also 12 charges for failing to comply with monitoring conditions, 57 charges for failing to remain at a notified address, seven breaches related to monitoring devices and one charge for contacting a victim of a previous offence.
