A 29-year-old Iraqi refugee who lured a 14-year-old Toowoomba schoolgirl with a vape sale, drove her to a remote lookout and sexually abused her has walked free from court with no jail time. Judge Deborah Richards found "exceptional circumstances", and among her stated reasons was that a tougher sentence could have cost him his visa.
The offender is back in the community, the sentence was shaped in a way that keeps automatic visa cancellation out of reach, and the one man who can still deport him, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, has made no public move to do it.
What Salah Sulaiman Almuhama did
Almuhama met the girl on Snapchat in early 2023, where the pair discussed a vape sale. He picked her up from a Toowoomba shopping centre while she was in her school uniform, drove her to a remote lookout, gave her $50 and sexually abused her, then dropped her at a hotel. She had told him she was 15. He was on bail for other matters at the time.
He was originally charged with rape. That charge was dropped after a plea deal, and he pleaded guilty in Toowoomba District Court in June to two counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16 and one count of supplying a smoking product to a child.
Judge Deborah Richards said he treated her 'like a prostitute', then found exceptional circumstances
Judge Richards told the court Almuhama had treated the girl like a prostitute, taken advantage of her and forced sex acts on her. She then sentenced him to 12 months, wholly suspended for two years, on top of the six months he had already served on remand. Her exceptional circumstances included his lack of criminal history, his early guilty plea, the time already served, and his visa position. A longer sentence, the court heard, would have triggered automatic visa cancellation and complicated his deportation.
Unless he commits another indictablef offence in the next two years, he will not serve a day of that sentence.
The 12-month loophole in the Migration Act
Under section 501(3A) of the Migration Act, visa cancellation is only mandatory while an offender is serving a sentence in full-time custody. A wholly suspended sentence, even for a child sex conviction, never touches the tripwire. Sentencing judges know it, defence lawyers submit on it, and in this case the court openly weighed deportation consequences in the offender's favour. Labor has not moved to close the gap.
This sentence should be appealed, so where is the prosecution?
There is a clean remedy sitting on the table, and nobody has picked it up. Under section 669A of the Criminal Code, the Queensland Attorney-General can appeal a sentence to the Court of Appeal on the ground that it is manifestly inadequate. A wholly suspended term for a man who a judge said treated a 14-year-old like a prostitute is the textbook definition of manifestly inadequate.
Attorney-General Deb Frecklington has shown she will act when she thinks a court has gone too soft. She recently ordered appeals against two other sentences she branded manifestly inadequate. The question is why this one is not already on that list.
The clock is the problem. An Attorney-General's appeal must be lodged within one calendar month of sentencing. With Almuhama sentenced in June, that window closes within days. Todd Fuller KC's Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions ran this case, accepted the plea that dropped the rape charge, and stood by as a child sex offender walked out the door. The state prosecuted him, secured convictions, and then let the punishment evaporate. Where is the prosecution now, when it has one last chance to fix it?
Tony Burke can deport him with a signature, today
Here is what the coverage of this case has largely missed. Almuhama already fails the character test. Section 501(6)(e) fails any person convicted of a sexually based offence involving a child, with no minimum sentence attached. That leaves the discretionary cancellation power sitting on the minister's desk right now, no new law required.
Tony Burke's own office talks about protecting the integrity of the migration system. Integrity has a test case in Toowoomba, and so far there is no public indication his department has acted on it.
Tyron Whitten told the Senate: send him back
One Nation senator for Western Australia Tyron Whitten raised the case in the Senate this week, calling the sentence "completely backwards".
"Australia welcomed him and his family, and all we asked in return [was] that he lived by our laws," Whitten said. "If this man reoffends, these judges should be held personally responsible. I would see all non-citizens that commit violent crime in this country deported. If you can't abide by our laws and the expectations of our culture, there is no place in Australia for you."
Video: Senator Tyron Whitten / One Nation. Whitten tells the Senate the suspended sentence is "completely backwards" and calls for the offender to be deported.
A pattern the courts keep producing
Readers have seen this before. A bridging visa holder jailed in Tasmania for a five-year campaign of child sex offences. A DiDi driver accused of sexually assaulting a Sydney 17-year-old. A NSW Labor government that scrapped good character sentencing discounts while Queensland courts stretch "exceptional circumstances" to cover visa convenience. It is the two-tier outcome Pauline Hanson has been describing for years: concessions built around an offender's background while the victim's side of the ledger stays empty.
A deportation that only needs a signature
The court had a mechanism to remove this man from the community and sentenced around it. The prosecution has days left to appeal a sentence that never should have been suspended. The minister has a mechanism to remove him from the country and has not used it. Three levers, three hands that can pull them, and so far not one has moved.
