A detective wrote to Peter Dutton about Mr Australia. Four years later, he’s still detained

Gary Lewer is a vastly different man to the one who graced the pages of women’s magazines and won record bodybuilding titles in the 1980s.

He’s wheelchair-bound and detained in Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation, a detention centre in Broadmeadows in Melbourne’s north.

The fourth anniversary of his detention has come and gone, after his visa was personally cancelled by then-immigration minister Peter Dutton in March 2020.

Dutton intervened after receiving a 16-page document prepared by a now-retired Frankston police officer and which British-born Lewer fiercely contests.

“If I read that document, I would deport me, too,” he says. “But it is a fantasy.”

The fight over Lewer’s detention and looming expulsion is complicated, involving claims and counter-claims of serious criminal behaviour.

Lewer, who moved to Australia as a four-year-old, does not have a clean record, with fines and good behaviour bonds for personal drug use, a conviction for gun possession in 1995 and withdrawn charges of child sex offences and drug trafficking.

The Department of Home Affairs rejected the first attempt by police to cancel Lewer’s visa in 2017, finding his record contained only “minor convictions”.

However, fresh documents obtained by this masthead show Dutton decided to deport Lewer two years later after receiving the letter that detailed allegations that go way beyond his criminal record, including crimes over which he was never charged, let alone convicted.

These include criminal conspiracies and connections with organised crime figures that police suspected Lewer had, but never even put to him. “How serious could their suspicions be?” he says. “When I explain to people I’ve only ever been to prison once, for six months, in the ’90s, they can’t believe it.”

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission – the nation’s top-secret organised crime investigator – cross-examined Lewer over the same allegations in 2017 but he was told there was no case to answer. “Unfortunately for me, the department requires no evidentiary material to detain you for years and deport you.”

The case raises important questions around the relationship between police and politicians, and the extraordinary powers of the Home Affairs minister to deport people on untested allegations in the pursuit of the “national interest” when applying the character test.

“The minister can set the national interest to suit the minister,” says barrister Chris Oldham, who represented Lewer in his first court challenge to remain in Australia. “They have an incredible amount of power.”

Lewer’s case is reaching its conclusion as the federal government pushes for greater deportation powers and mandatory jail sentences for those who refuse to co-operate. Experts say the laws impact everyone from vulnerable refugee groups to well-resourced permanent residents.

University of Melbourne senior lecturer in criminology Dr Claire Loughnan says Lewer’s case is “very disturbing” and argues criminal allegations should only be dealt with through the criminal courts, where the presumption of innocence, fair process and the right to defence apply.

“Any allegation should be subject to the same process, regardless of whether they’re serious or not. Otherwise, it starts to function as two parallel ‘injustice’ systems,” Loughnan says. “And in doing this, police are politicising the criminal justice system.”

Loughnan says the creeping powers of the Home Affairs minister are hard to wind back, and Lewer’s case reveals a “broader systemic problem” which can impact the wider population.

“It’s a policing-style approach to border control that’s grown beyond the conventional border security of stopping boats.

“There appears to be a practice of identifying deportable people internally. If you start supporting these policies and laws and practices, then you never know who it might affect. Anyone who doesn’t comply with the idea of a ‘good citizen’ could be targeted.”

There are currently no rules around how long someone can be detained, and investigations by this masthead have revealed centres are plagued by violence, open drug taking and broken healthcare services.

Lewer launched a last-ditch ministerial intervention request with Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil in December 2022, which includes new information about his health condition and claims to Indigenous heritage. Lewer, and his family, have been in limbo since.

“It’s beyond words,” his wife, Kathryn Lewer, says. “We’ve been left gobsmacked, devastated, floored by it all. I had no idea he could be thrown into detention and not get out, there not be an end date.”

Lewer arrived in Australia from the United Kingdom in 1960 and grew up in Morwell, in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, south-east of Melbourne. He never applied for citizenship, but thought he had equal rights – having voted in elections (due to a quirk allowing British “subjects” to vote), used Medicare and joined a political party.

Over the decades, he built a life here – got married, had children, opened gyms and pursued a high-profile bodybuilding career. He won the Mr Australia bodybuilding title every year of the 1980s.

It’s no secret that steroid-taking is a key part of the bodybuilding industry, and Lewer acknowledges he has a string of convictions related to steroid possession and use that resulted in fines and community service orders.

He insists the other charges on his record – child sex offences and gun possession – are not as serious as they appear.

He says the weapon was found at his house when police were searching for steroids, and that it was only ever for clay shooting with his son. Lewer pleaded guilty and was given two six-month sentences, served concurrently.

The child sex offences are more complicated. He says the charges were laid when photos were found of him attending a party hosted by his friend who, on his telling, unknowingly dated a teenager. Nine other men who attended the party were also charged, but all charges were dropped when the girls withdrew their evidence on the first day of hearings.

Regardless, the charges would come back to haunt Lewer, when he came onto the radar of a Frankston detective in 2013. This masthead has chosen not to identify the detective.

Now retired, the detective worked in the drug squad when he discovered chemicals stored in a Seaford warehouse, in Melbourne’s south-east, after a tip-off.

Described to the media as a “drug lab”, it later emerged the owner of the chemicals, Andrew Hutton, a friend of Lewer, ran a legal chemicals company.

Court documents show Hutton’s estranged wife alleged the two men had conspired to import chemicals to traffic drugs of dependence.

Hutton was arrested and released on bail conditions that made it difficult to see his family. During this period, his daughter was critically ill with cancer. The detective told the hospital Hutton was a violent criminal and security was needed for visitations.

Hutton’s daughter died in hospital alone in December 2013. Two months later, his wife tried to kill herself and ended up in intensive care. Hutton’s lawyer made a direct request to the detective to allow him to visit his wife on her deathbed.

“What is to be gained from denying him access to see his wife? You are already aware of his recent loss.”

The detective responded the request was “laughable” and accused Hutton of using his family to advance his legal case.

Hutton was devastated by this claim and his barrister, Colin Mandy, said his client had “suffered at the informant’s hands, at least emotionally” – after the detective told Hutton’s family and child-protection agencies he was a dangerous criminal.

“Before his arrest, he was spending a lot of time as a father would at his daughter’s bedside,” Mandy told the court. “The end result was ... Charlotte died in hospital, neither her mother nor her father were with her.”

Ultimately, Hutton was given a six-month suspended sentence after pleading guilty to illegal chemical storage and possession of precursor chemicals for the period his business registration had lapsed.

Lewer was never charged.

Hutton and Lewer claim the detective became fixated on them, and went to new lengths to hold them accountable for the crimes he believed they had committed.

Appalled, Lewer began lodging complaints with regulatory agencies and politicians – all of which were either not investigated or cleared the detective of misconduct.

“The detective was involved in a lengthy and sustained total and absolute abuse of his authority in the malicious fabrications and prosecution of Mr Andrew Hutton,” Lewer wrote in one complaint.

Victoria Police said a professional standards’ investigation found the officer involved had acted appropriately.

“After carefully considering the issues raised in your correspondence, I have been unable to establish any misconduct or improper behaviour by Victoria Police,” one letter stated.

The detective did not respond to requests for comment.

Over the next five years, Lewer claims the detective mounted several attempts to have him punished. The Australian Tax Office audited his business in 2016, after the detective reported he had hidden millions of dollars in income and assets. The tax investigation concluded with an $800 fine for overdue returns.

Next, came the investigation by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission – the top-secret organisation that probes serious and organised crime. Both Lewer and Hutton were subpoenaed to participate in separate, hours-long interviews and were grilled about Lewer’s alleged criminal connections. Both were denied legal representation and threatened with imprisonment, they claim. Yet, after the hearings, the case was closed with no further action.

In 2017, the detective wrote to the Department of Home Affairs asking for Lewer’s visa to be cancelled but was told by a department officer this was not possible because Lewer’s record had only “minor convictions”.

“The reason they [police] are recommending deportation is due to current investigations which are ongoing and have not yet resulted in any new conviction at this stage,” according to one email.

But in 2020, he was leaving his Frankston home when four police cars surrounded him. “I was put in the back of a divisional van, taken to the police station, then handcuffed for the 90-minute drive to MITA.”

In 2014, new laws made visa cancellations mandatory for prison sentences of 12 months – and the move could be retrospective. Lewer was told his visa was cancelled because of his prison stint in 1995 for gun possession. He later received the police intelligence document sent to Dutton.

The document, titled “Request for Favourable Consideration of Visa Cancellation – Gary Lewer”, details his criminal record and the abandoned drug-trafficking conspiracy case with Hutton, but also a range of other alleged crimes – bribery of Chinese government officials, associations with convicted drug kingpin Tony Mokbel and others.

At times, the document is upfront about the lack of evidence to support its claims: “There is no direct evidence other than suspicious coincidence to support this belief.”

It concluded that Lewer should be deported because he has a “powerful reputation in criminal circles as being a violent individual who has the proven behavioural and financial means to inflict harm on any person”.

The document states Lewer is “extremely disciplined in his criminal conduct to avoid detection and is therefore an extremely difficult suspect to investigate”.

In Dutton’s reasons for cancelling Lewer’s visa, he cites Lewer’s criminal record and quotes the police intelligence in determining the risk of Lewer re-offending was too high. “The Australian community should not tolerate the risk of harm that could result from such conduct,” Dutton found.

University of Canberra criminology professor Leanne Weber says when criminal allegations are considered serious, it “raise the stakes” for the politician involved – further strengthening the need for the separation of powers.

“Just because the charge sounds serious, or perhaps is serious, or is presented as serious, that sends things down a certain pathway - there’s a presumption they become an ongoing threat to the community,” Weber says. “It’s just another example of how the system is infused with politics to the detriment of law.”

Loughnan agreed and pointed to the political language – including Dutton’s “taking out the trash” comment in 2021 regarding New Zealanders – to justify expelling people the government “does not want in the country”.

“It’s a really dangerous narrative because it keeps fuelling this hysteria about anyone who might not fit the model of what is seen to be a worthy member of the public,” she says. “You end up with eroding the basic principles of due process under law.”

From detention, Lewer challenged the legitimacy of the police intelligence. He lodged freedom of information requests to obtain the basis for the police claims but was told no information existed.

He hired lawyers, and mounted two Federal Court challenges. In the first, Lewer argued that without primary documents such as witness statements, CCTV footage, or other evidence “to support the various allegations”, there was no evidence before the minister. This was rejected.

“I do not accept that contention,” Justice Bernard Murphy found. “The minister was entitled to treat the reports as having been prepared carefully and in good faith … He was not obliged to seek out the primary material gathered by Victoria Police.”

In a later appeal rejected by three judges, one judge found there was “no doubt” the police reports were “largely based on hearsay and would not have been admissible in criminal proceedings” but ruled this did not prevent the minister from lawfully relying on the information in his decision-making.

“That case profoundly changed the way I practise law,” says barrister Chris Oldham, who represented Lewer. “It’s extremely difficult to continually represent people who have no hope under the way the law is structured.”

Oldham says the public would be shocked to understand the powers of the police and the minister.

“If people knew there was an ability for police to communicate to the minister about a guy they don’t like, they think he’s done these things ... There would be a lot more interest in what’s really going on behind the scenes.”

A Victoria Police spokesperson says information-sharing with the federal government about deportations is “done in line with strict Victoria Police policy”.

When asked for a copy of the policy, Victoria Police declined and said the only way to access it was through Freedom of Information.

Dutton’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil did not respond to requests for comment. Immigration Minister Andrew Giles’ office declined to comment.

Lewer speaks with his wife twice a day. She doesn’t understand how this has happened, particularly to someone who has spent his entire life in Australia and has children here.

“It’s gone before the courts and I don’t even understand the workings of the courts as to how it can be the way it is,” Kathryn says. “It’s crazy. But obviously, they have the powers to do this.”

Before he was detained, Lewer spent time in The Alfred hospital after contracting sepsis. His treating doctor made an appeal for Lewer’s release.

“I have serious problems with Gary being detained. Gary is not facing any current criminal charges and poses no threat to the community at all. For these reasons, he should be released ASAP,” the doctor wrote in bolded lettering.

This request fell on deaf ears. Now, Lewer is wheelchair-bound after he slipped and badly hurt his back shortly after entering detention. Medical records show he’s been waiting to see a neurosurgeon for more than two years, to no avail.

Lewer is now pursuing a last-ditch effort to remain in Australia by retracing his family history, believing his grandmother may be Indigenous.

“Being deported is a death sentence,” Lewer says. “They could come in at 4am and stick me on a plane. You live with that fear every day.”

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