Mother faces deportation to UK from Australia after release from prison
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Version 0 of 1. A British-born mother convicted of a string of grievous offences faces being deported back to UK from Australia after her visa was revoked. Kelly Webb, 30, moved to the country from Britain when she was two years old and has since been to prison 11 times for offences including the fatal stabbing of her stepfather in 2002. The mother-of-five, who has a history of hard drug abuse, is currently serving an 18-month sentence for burglary and is being held at Maribyrnong Detention Centre in Victoria. Webb told Australian radio station 3AW she never became a naturalised Australian citizen and has not visited Britain since she left in 1988. She said: “I’ll die of a broken heart [if deported]...I just want to be a mum to my kids.” The Australian government introduced a law in 2014 allowing authorities to cancel visas if a person is imprisoned for longer than a year, as part of a strict clampdown on immigration. Webb slammed the law as “cruel” and “sad” and insisted the deportation threat was “the wake-up call that I need” to deal with her drug addiction. She continued: “I need to stay in this country - I need to work on myself.” She finished by publicly appealing to the Australian authorities, saying: “Please just give me a chance. I will never ever do anything wrong ever again.” Webb has no family in Britain and will be separated from her children, aged between one and nine years old, if she is deported. In November last year a 51-year-old British citizen who has lived in Australia for 50 years was told he would be deported for lighting an illegal scrub fire under the new legislation. The Independent has contacted the Victoria Department for Justice and Regulation for comment. |