A woman who made a false allegation of rape against her former partner in a "sustained and clinical course of deception" has won a reprieve from deportation.
File photo. Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
The 39-year-old woman was convicted of attempting to pervert the course of justice and was sentenced to 12-months' home detention.
"The [sentencing] judge noted that the offending was motivated by spite, was a sustained and clinical course of deception, and had a significant impact on the victim whose own mental frailties were known to the appellant; [she] impugned the integrity of the criminal justice process and she used the Rape Crisis Centre as an unwitting vehicle to further her own agenda," said the immigration and protection tribunal in a recent judgment.
Immigration New Zealand last year refused her a residence visa noting the significant consequences of the offending, the impact on the "traumatised" victim and the waste of police time and resources.
The appeals tribunal previously ruled it had no jurisdiction to consider a residence appeal because of her conviction.
It allowed a temporary visa while she still faced court proceedings, and in the most recent case granted her a 12-month visa.
The tribunal ruled her bipolar affective disorder would make it unduly harsh to deport her to India. She had since married, and her New Zealand husband's illness meant he could not join her if she was deported, it was told.
"The tribunal does not overlook or minimise the seriousness of the appellant's offending," it said.
"However, she has shown a level of hardship to herself and her husband beyond that which is acceptable in order to preserve the integrity of New Zealand's immigration system through her deportation at this time.
"[She] has not lived in India for an appreciable time over the last 11 years, and she no longer has close family living there. She will return there with a mental disorder, without a support system, as her parents and sister now reside in New Zealand and her husband states that he cannot return with her in view of his own health condition.
"The grant of a temporary visa will give the appellant the opportunity of further treatment for her mental illness, for the Covid-19 situation in India to ease, and for the appellant and her husband to plan ahead for any eventual return of the appellant to India."
