Hearing continues in HIV bodily harm case
AN HIV-positive circus acrobat whose visa was cancelled after infecting his girlfriend is trying to have the ban overturned so he can return.
Gold Coast performer Godfrey Zaburoni was held in immigration detention last September and has since returned to his native Zimbabwe.
At a Federal Court hearing in Sydney yesterday, his law- yer Mark Robinson argued that Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, who signed off on the visa cancellation, didn’t properly consider doctors reports that said Zaburoni was low or zero risk to the community.
Mr Robinson told the court Zaburoni had turned his life around and medication use meant he was incapable of infecting anyone else at the time of the cancellation.
“(The minister) has made a quantum leap without taking all of that matter into account,” he said.
Zaburoni was originally sentenced to 9½ years’ jail in 2013 after being convicted in Queensland of intentionally infecting someone with HIV.
He was found to have infected his girlfriend between 2007 and 2008.
However, the High Court upheld his appeal against the conviction in April last year, finding while he had regular unprotected sex with her, there was “no evidence to support the inference” he intentionally infected her.
Zaburoni was resentenced to five years’ jail for the lesser charge of unlawfully doing grievous bodily harm but it was suspended in June because he had already served more than three years. The hearing continues.