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Offender Databases Rawel Singh

Rawel Singh

Alias

.

Offences

Rape of an 18 year old Rotorua woman in early 1999

Victims

.

Offender Affiliations

.

Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1963

Current Location

At large

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced to seven years in December 1999
Released June 2004

Background
Dominion Post, 22nd February 2005
AN INDIAN immigrant convicted of rape five years ago has been told he can stay in New Zealand to be close to his three children. Rawel Singh, 41, a former restaurant manager in Rotorua, was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment in December 1999 after raping a young woman. Mr Singh, who was freed from prison last June, has successfully appealed against a deportation order, issued by the immigration minister in 2002.

A Deportation Review Tribunal decision says that sending him back to India would be "unduly harsh" to his three New Zealand-born children, to whom he is a good father. Mr Singh, who arrived in New Zealand in 1989, was given residency on humanitarian grounds in 1997 -- after several failed attempts -- after the birth of two of his children. He was jailed for raping an 18-year-old waitress from his restaurant.

He had taken the young woman, who was "grossly intoxicated" from drinking after work, to his house to sober up. Since being freed from jail he has regained contact with his children. He works part- time and receives unemployment and family support income for his youngest child. His former partner, who has since married another man and given birth to three other children, has lost custody of Mr Singh's eldest two after her new husband physically abused them.

After one attack, the eldest son was admitted to hospital with broken ribs. Mr Singh's lawyer, David Allen, said that forcing him back to India would return him to "abject poverty" and deprive the children of their father. Relocating the children to India was "not an option" as they were "born out of wedlock and are of mixed Cook Island and Sikh race". Andrew Gane, lawyer for the immigration minister, said Mr Singh should be expelled because of the seriousness of the offence.

Wanting to remain because New Zealand was "a safer and more pleasant place than India" was not a compelling reason to allow him to stay. The tribunal panel said that after careful analysis of the seriousness of the offending and the interests of his children, the balance was "tipped in favour of quashing the deportation order". Mr Singh was assessed as having a low risk of reoffending, and had a strong support network, the panel said.

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Corrections and Additional Information
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