Thu Mar 24, 2005 08:26 AM GMT
SYDNEY (
Reuters) - A British-born man due to be deported after spending 37 years in Australian jails on child sex offences will remain behind bars until July while possible new charges against him are investigated, officials have said.
Western Australian state Attorney General Jim McGinty had said convicted paedophile Robert Excell would be deported to Britain within days, but that decision was put on hold after new allegations surfaced.
McGinty said he had talked to the state's parole board about the allegations made by a former prisoner who had been in jail with Excell, 66.
"The parole board has today advised that Robert Excell will not be released from prison on parole until July 1, 2005, because of the possibility of investigations by the Department of Justice and the WA Police," a statement issued by McGinty's on Thursday office said.
Excell has spent 37 of the past 39 years in jail for a string of child sex convictions dating back to 1965.
A lawyer acting for a former prisoner, named only as "John", said earlier on Thursday that his client claimed Excell had raped him in 1992 and 1998 while they were in jail in Perth, the Western Australian capital.
McGinty said on Wednesday that Excell would be released on parole on condition that he was immediately deported to Britain and that Excell's visa allowing him to stay in Australia had been cancelled.
Excell was to have been released because of his age and poor health.
He had previously been released on parole three times but was returned to jail after offending again each time.
The Western Australian government intervened three years ago to keep Excell in jail after the parole board again decided he should be released.
Britain's Home Office said sex offenders deported to Britain would be interviewed by Special Branch police and information would be passed on to local police wherever the offender lived, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported on Wednesday.
The BBC said Excell would be included in a register of sex offenders in Britain.
Excell emigrated to Australia at the age of 10 but never took citizenship.
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