By Goya Dmytryshchak
A man who arrived in Australia from Chile before he turned one has avoided deportation for family violence offences.
Julio Cesar Pizarro, who was arrested at Altona North, has had the cancellation of his visa overturned by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal of Australia. The tribunal heard
Mr Pizarro, 45, made full admissions to sending threatening text messages to his ex-partner in contravention of an intervention order (IVO).
The tribunal heard his ex-partner, known as SP, wrote to the minister’s department in April expressing concern that Mr Pizzaro could be released from immigration detention on Christmas Island.
“All I can say is that I am terrified of him being released into the public as I will demonstrate,” she wrote.
“I have over 2000 text messages threatening to kill me and in breach of the restraining order.
“These messages threatened to cut me up in to pieces and bury me interstate.
“Others told me I would swim with the fishes.”
Her letter detailed further incidents from “over a decade of torture and torment”.
In revoking the cancellation of Mr Pizarro’s visa, tribunal deputy president Stephanie Forgie said she was satisfied he was “not a danger to the Australian community as a whole”.
“He has behaved in the past in a way that is in breach of IVOs, but the work that he has done on his behaviour and the knowledge that another offence is likely to lead to his visa being cancelled, leads me to conclude that the risk of Mr Pizarro’s breaching an IVO is greatly reduced,” Ms Forgie said. “If he does breach an IVO, the risk of physical harm to SP is low and to the children very much lower if at all.”
