A former Northland resident who emigrated to Australia in 2019 to chase a dream of playing in the NRL has been ordered to leave the country after he was sent to prison there for repeated domestic violence against his partner.

Allegations against 23-year-old Sydney resident Mikaira Selwyn included that he repeatedly bit his then-partner during fits of jealousy, spat in her face and accidentally cut her abdomen with scissors while attempting to cut her hair against her will.

In a recent 18-page decision, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal of Australia - considered one of the last chances for those who have been ordered deported under the nation’s 501 immigration policy - rejected his bid for a second chance.

“The tribunal has formed the view that the risk of reoffending remains, and it is a real risk,” senior tribunal member Kira Raif wrote in the decision. “The applicant agreed in oral evidence that his past conduct demonstrated a pattern of violent behaviour.

 “The tribunal considers that the harm to the community, should the applicant reoffend, could be very serious, given the nature of offending (repeated incidents of domestic violence). The Tribunal has formed the view that the protection of the Australian community weighs heavily against [allowing him to stay].”

Selwyn was sentenced to 16 months imprisonment in December 2021 after pleading guilty to seven counts of assault causing bodily harm, one count of intentionally choking a person without consent, one count of contravening a protection order and one count of knowingly making a false or misleading statement to police.

His visa was cancelled the following month due to his “substantial criminal record” - a standard response in Australia for non-citizens who have been ordered to serve a prison sentence of a year or longer.

He appeared before the tribunal in December in a bid to overturn the decision - noting, in part, that deportation would cause emotional hardship by stalling his aspirations for a rugby league career.

“The applicant states that he has contributed to the community through his dedication to sport and the tribunal accepts that evidence,” Raif noted in the decision.

“The tribunal is of the view that there would be some impediment to the applicant if he is removed from Australia arising from his inability to pursue his rugby league career in Australia but not due to other factors.”

Documents show he played junior rugby league in 2020 for the Helensburgh Tigers, a team based out of New South Wales that has served as a stepping stone for numerous NRL players.

But the tribunal didn’t mention Selwyn’s specific rugby league accomplishments, preferring instead to focus on his criminal history.

The domestic violence spanned a 10-month period starting in August 2020, when Selwyn is alleged to have held down his partner and punched her in the eye after becoming angry that she wanted to go out with friends. Two months later, he took his partner’s phone and became jealous that she was following other men on Instagram. As she attempted to take the phone back and call police, he again restrained her.

“He refused to let her leave, then bit the victim’s cheek,” the tribunal noted in its report, relying on court documents. “The victim yelled, ‘Get off me!’ repeatedly but the Applicant used his palm to cover her mouth to stop her from talking. When another person knocked on the door, the Applicant told the victim to ‘shut up’ before speaking to that person.

“When he re-entered, he locked the door and did not let the victim leave the room. It is recorded that the Applicant pulled the victim backwards, causing her shirt to rip, then used his palms to push her into the corner of the room and used his forearm to forcefully lean onto her chest. It is recorded that the Applicant used the plastic box where the accused was packing her belongings and brought it forcefully down onto his head, causing cuts to his face, stating that he would make it look like ‘she did it to him’.”

Australia's former Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs says deportations are widening the transtasman gulf.

Another altercation took place last January after Selwyn again took his partner’s phone to snoop on her Instagram account.

“He told her he did not want her to leave and that he would get scissors to cut her hair, so that she could not leave,” documents state. “The Applicant obtained a pair of scissors and raised these to the head of the victim. As she tried to push him away, the scissors cut the victim on the side of her abdomen, resulting in a laceration.

“As the victim tried to leave, the Applicant grabbed her forearm and forced her towards the floor before he straddled her and sat on her for about 10 to 15 minutes. The Applicant repeatedly stated that he loved the victim and did not want her to leave him.”

He bit her upper lip and her palm later that month during another outburst over social media, causing her to bleed, and he bit her another time in March — also punching her and spitting in her face — after she asked him to move out. There were two other assaults in April and May that followed him going through her Instagram messages, including an incident in which he choked her as she tried to flee the violence.

He also falsely reported to police in May his partner had attacked him.

“He subsequently admitted to lying due to the pressure of police presence and that the truthful version is that the injuries were self-inflicted, caused by a plastic lid that he smashed over his head,” the tribunal noted.

He breached bail that same month by calling the victim seven times, speaking to her during one of the calls about his upcoming court hearing.

The magistrate who sentenced Selwyn noted that the defendant expressed remorse for his actions. He has good prospects for rehabilitation, the magistrate also suggested.

Speaking to the tribunal last month, Selwyn acknowledged that his conduct had been wrong but he denied some of the events described in the police reports — even though he pleaded guilty to them. He did so, he said, “on advice of his lawyer that it was a ‘good deal’ and that he would get a discount on the sentence”. While incarcerated, he noted, he took a domestic violence course for several weeks before he was transferred to a facility where the course wasn’t offered.

The offending took place over a short period and there is no risk of reoffending because he no longer has any contact with his former partner, he argued.

“The Tribunal does not accept that this is necessarily so,” Raif responded in the written decision. “The Tribunal does not consider [10 months] to be a brief period.

“...Offences of that nature can also occur in any future relationships and not only in relation to one person.”

The tribunal also rejected Selwyn’s arguments that he should be allowed to stay in Australia because deportation would cause emotional and financial hardship, or because he might be at risk of joining a gang in New Zealand.

 “The Tribunal does not accept that financial hardship would be caused to the Applicant if he were to leave Australia, even if he cannot pursue a Rugby League career in Australia,” the judgement states.

“It is not clear to the Tribunal why the Applicant considers that joining a gang is the only option for him in New Zealand. There must be a considerable proportion of the society who are able to maintain normal lives in New Zealand without being members of any gangs.”