A 52-year-old Victorian man has been sentenced to four years and six months in prison, with a non-parole period of three years and three months, after deceiving his wife into leaving Australia and preventing her return.
The man, from Meadow Heights, is the first Victorian to be convicted of an exit trafficking offence.
In 2014, he convinced his then-wife, a foreign national, to travel to Sudan, where he subsequently abandoned her without her passport or any means of returning to Australia.
Before leaving Sudan, the man had secretly arranged to revoke her Australian partner visa and applied for single caregiver financial assistance.
The victim, who was living in Australia on a partner visa at the time, managed to return in early 2016 with help from Victoria Legal Aid and filed a human trafficking complaint. Following a four-year investigation, the man was arrested in 2016, charged in 2021, and found guilty in April 2024.
During sentencing, the judge highlighted the man’s calculated abuse of power over his vulnerable victim. AFP Detective Superintendent Bernard Geason praised the victim’s courage in coming forward, stressing the importance of awareness and reporting to prevent human trafficking.
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