Subject: AGE: Australian pedophile given 48 hours to leave

The Age

Australian pedophile given 48 hours to leave

By Jill Jolliffe Darwin

June 14 2003

A convicted Australian pedophile has been ordered to leave East Timor after a pioneering joint operation involving Australian and East Timorese police.

Dili immigration authorities gave former Queenslander Wilfred Mentink 48 hours to leave the country after he sailed into Dili harbour on Wednesday on board his yacht Loris.

Acting United Nations Police Commissioner Dennis McDermott said Mr Mentink had been turned back after failing to declare his convictions on immigration entry documents.

"It's a first example of co-operation on this question," he said. Australian and East Timorese police had been tracking the yacht's movements before it arrived in Dili.

In September 1993 Mentink pleaded guilty in a Queensland court to charges of having sex with a minor and indecently dealing with another minor.

He received a nine-year sentence, later reduced on appeal to six years, and was released on parole in 1996.

Customs and immigration officials boarded and searched the yacht early on Wednesday, later informing Mr Mentink he could not land because he had made false statements on an immigration entry form.

Bernadette McMenamin, of the child protection group Child Wise, said it was "an excellent development".

Speaking from Melbourne, she said it pointed to the need for Australia to go further, by obliging convicted pedophiles to report to police before leaving the country, following British practice.

"In this case they have turned back someone who could have seriously harmed East Timorese children, who are among the most vulnerable in the world," she said. "If there is not closer monitoring, East Timor could go the way of Cambodia."

East Timorese police are increasingly concerned about pedophile and prostitution rings, whose clients are mainly international.

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/


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