A convicted gang rapist, who managed to evade authorities for five days after escaping a hospital under immigration officials’ supervision, has been denied bail by the court.
Michael Angok, aged 30, did not request bail during his court appearance on Monday. Consequently, Judge Rachael Wong at Blacktown Local Court officially denied it.
The case is scheduled to be revisited in court on June 5, as per the court records.
Angok, who was found guilty of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl during a gang rape in Sydney back in 2014, was in immigration detention when he fled from Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital last Wednesday, initiating a widespread police search.
Authorities finally apprehended him in Seven Hills, located in the northwest of the city, on Sunday. His capture followed the discovery of his shoes during a police search at a residence in the area.
Having completed his sentence for the 2014 crime, which took place in a Doonside park, Angok was being detained as an immigration detainee at the time of his escape.
He was being transported from Villawood Immigration Detention Centre for medical treatment before he escaped.
Australian Border Force declined to comment on the matter as it was before the courts, but said the “safety and security of the community remains the absolute priority for the ABF and Department of Home Affairs”.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke did not respond to a request for comment.
Opposition home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam said Angok’s case showed a slide in security at federal immigration facilities.
“Escapes have more than doubled under Labor in only two years,” Duniam said in a statement.
“This points to a system that is clearly not being properly managed.”
The issue of crimes committed by immigration detainees is controversial and evokes memories of the so-called NZYQ cohort, non-citizens detained indefinitely as a risk to the community then released after a 2023 High Court ruling deemed the detention unlawful.
The cohort’s release grabbed headlines after the coalition seized on alleged reoffending to criticise the government for failing to keep them locked up following the High Court ruling.
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