A paedophile who was part of a child-sex ring with links to Robert 'Dolly' Dunn operating in Sydney in the 1980s was released from jail on Wednesday and is now battling deportation to the US from inside an immigration detention centre.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mitchell Bruce Fox, 72, from Northbridge, became eligible for parole having served 41/2 years of a maximum sentence of nine years.
The Sun-Herald understands that the intention was to immediately deport him to his native US. Although born in the US he has two daughters to his first wife and a son aged about 20 to a second wife.
He is understood to be seeking revocation of that decision and will launch an appeal to Immigration Minister Peter Dutton.
Because his visa had been revoked by the Department of Immigration, he was sent to the Villawood detention centre.
Mr Dutton, a former detective with experience of child sex offenders, is expected to take a hard line on the matter with the appeal thought likely to be declined.
Fox could then seek a judicial review of that decision in the courts. A State Parole Authority spokesman said in the rare event Fox returns to Australia before his parole period expires, he must meet strict conditions including not contacting his victims and their families and not going to Liverpool, Parramatta, Randwick, Waverley or Woollahra. He would also be required to undergo psychological counselling.
One source said: "The appeal can be a long, tedious process. He will probably be around for quite some time."
Fox is no stranger to trying to delay matters through the legal system. At his sentencing in 2011, Judge Michael King said Fox had pleaded guilty to seven charges after his lawyer, in "a desperate last roll of the dice", failed in a bid to have each victim give evidence in a separate trial.
The court was told Fox abused boys aged between nine and 15, over five years at his homes in Bellevue Hill and Collaroy and on a boat on Sydney Harbour.
The judge said Fox was introduced by other members of the ring, which included Phillip Edwards who committed suicide in April days before he was due to face trial.
Karen Lindley, NSW spokeswoman for advocacy group Bravehearts, said she believed Fox would be in solitary at Villawood where there were also children in detention.
"We don't want people like that in our community, she said.
* Further alleged victims of a Sydney paedophile Catholic priest have come forward since The Sun-Herald reported on his court case in September.
Father Robert Flaherty was found guilty of two allegations of indecent assault against a 12-year-old boy in 1977 after a trial which finished on September 7.
The now-retired priest living in the Blue Mountains had pleaded guilty last October to three offences of indecent assault against two other boys in the 1970s.
Father Flaherty is due to be sentenced in December.
