One of Victoria's most dangerous sexual offenders has been deported, nearly nine years after he was first ordered to leave Australia

John Silvester:

Xiang Dong Wang was deported to Shanghai on Saturday, despite claims that he could be retried in China for his crimes and executed.

"Alex" Wang, 37, has spent the past 20 years in custody after he committed four rapes and several burglaries shortly after migrating to Australia with his family.

He was moved to the Maribyrnong Detention Centre on February 20 after it was found he was still in a Victorian jail, two years after he had completed his sentence. He became a detainee once his sentence was finished.

Jail sources said Wang had told prison officials that when he was released he intended to "find more women". He also threatened to rape the mother of one of the detention centre officers who has been guarding him.

He was held in isolation in the Maribyrnong centre under strict instructions that he was not to have any contact with female staff. Female staff and detainees were cleared from corridors in the centre when the heavily guarded Wang left his room.

It is believed immigration officers bought him an X-box entertainment unit and a large television to placate him while he was at the centre.

Wang had served sentences in South Australia, NSW and Victoria before he was moved to the detention centre. The Immigration Minister signed a deportation order on September 16, 1997, but he has remained in Australia while completing his jail terms.

He migrated to Australia on December 17, 1985, with his parents and two sisters from the Xinjiang province and the next year committed a series of violent rapes over seven months. He has been in maximum-security jails since he was a teenager.

Wang appealed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal against the decision to deport him, claiming he may be retried and executed if sent to China. The tribunal has twice, in 2001 and 2003, rejected the motions.

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