A convicted rapist on the run for five days after escaping immigration detention while awaiting deportation has been caught.
Michael Angok was being transported from Villawood Immigration Detention Centre to a western Sydney hospital for medical treatment when he escaped on Wednesday.
An initial search by NSW Police found some of his personal items thrown onto the road a few hundred metres away, but the 30-year-old disappeared.
Officers tracked him down on Sunday, about 25km away in northwestern Sydney, in the suburb of Seven Hills.
Angok was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in a gang rape at Doonside park in 2014.
He had served his sentence for the offence and was being held in custody as an immigration detainee awaiting deportation.
Immigrants who have spent time in prison for crimes committed in Australia have become a hot-button political issue since 2023, when the High Court found indefinite detention was unlawful.
While some had serious criminal convictions, including murder and rape, others faced less serious charges, and all had finished serving their time behind bars before being placed in immigration detention over visa issues.
Australian Associated Press