“I was even in prison for three days.”
She said the ordeal “irrevocably changed” her and her children, of whom she now has full custody.
“Losing my children was the most devastating period of my life,” she said.
Omer, 52, became the first person in Victoria prosecuted with exit trafficking – a crime where a person is tricked into leaving Australia and prevented from returning – after deceiving his wife into travelling to Sudan and led her to believe she had a valid visa to return.
He had withdrawn his support for her visa and, after arriving in Sudan, he changed the family tickets home.
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Omer faces up to 12 years in jail after a jury found him guilty in April.
His barrister told Tuesday’s pre-sentence hearing that Omer’s post-traumatic stress disorder from growing up in a civil war would make prison more difficult.
“It’s accepted this is really a stain on an otherwise blameless life for Mr Omer,” Brett Stevens said.
“He acknowledges the intentional deceit that caused the complainant to exit Australia, but that doesn’t mean the jury accepted all of the victim’s evidence.”
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Stevens asked judge Frank Gucciardo to sentence Omer, who is currently in jail, to a good behaviour bond with “some period to serve” in prison.
But prosecutor John Saunders said Omer’s “callous behaviour” needed proper punishment.
“The youngest of the children was still being breastfed, these are particularly damaging acts in the context of a young family,” he said.
Gucciardo said Omer fabricated much of his story to explain his conduct.
He blamed his wife during his police interview, claimed she had neglected their children and that he left Sudan with the children because her family had threatened him.
“He is simply dissembling, or at one end just fabricating stuff,” Gucciardo said.
Omer will be sentenced at a later date.
AAP
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