The man who indecently assaulted a three-year-old girl at a Sydney shopping centre is likely to be deported.

Mohammed Hassan Al Bayati is originally from Iraq and arrived by boat in 2011.

READ: 'I was sickened': Appalled PM vows to cancel predator security guard's visa

He has been living in Australia under a permanent protection visa.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has told The Daily Telegraph, “It’s abhorrent and unacceptable that a young child was terrorised by someone that was granted protection in our country.”

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The formal process of cancelled the visa could start today, according to the paper.

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In 2014 a new law was introduced to automatically cancel a non-citizen’s visa when they are convicted of a serious crime and jailed for 12 months or more.

The crime

One-time Iraqi asylum seeker Mohammad Hassan Al Bayati was employed as a security guard by DFO Homebush when he took the little girl away from the centre's playground, down a fire exit and to an unmonitored area a week before Christmas in 2016.

She had been playing with her seven-year-old sister while their mother was Christmas shopping, and Al Bayati was responding to an alert that a young girl was alone in the playground and seemed to be distressed.

Play Video Criminal Psychologist Tim Watson-Munro talks about the horror sexual assault of a three-year-old girl by a Sydney shopping centre security guard Criminal Psychologist Tim Watson-Munro talks about the horror sexual assault of a three-year-old girl by a Sydney shopping centre security guard

By the time Al Bayati arrived at the playground, the girl was playing happily on the slide.

But he took the girl by the hand and walked her towards the fire exit and into unmonitored areas where the pair were alone.

Not only did he abuse the young child, the predator also gave her mother a mouthful for leaving her daughter alone in the first place.

A NSW District Court jury found Al Bayati exposed his penis and touched the girl's underwear during 11 minutes away from surveillance cameras. 'Gall of the offender' Judge John Pickering on Tuesday jailed him for four-and-a-half years.

Watch the video below: Security guard sentenced

Play Video A shopping centre security guard has served the first night of his 4.5 year sentence for indecently assaulting a 3 year old girl in Sydney. A shopping centre security guard has served the first night of his 4.5 year sentence for indecently assaulting a 3 year old girl in Sydney.

He will spend a minimum of two years and six months behind bars for kidnapping with intent to obtain sexual gratification, act of indecency and indecent assault.

When Al Bayati returned the girl to the playground he found her frantic mother and sister waiting and proceeded to give her a dressing down for leaving her child alone.

'He ended up being the greatest risk'

"The gall of the offender to lecture the mother about the dangers and risks of leaving her in the play area, when he ended up being the greatest risk, is one of the most curious parts in this matter," Pickering said.

Police only became involved after the girl, who cannot be named as she is a child victim, told her father later that day Al Bayati showed her his "needle" and "tried to kiss my bum bum".

Pickering said the girl showed "remarkable resilience through her courage".

'Resilience through her courage'

"It's quite remarkable because I think of how many three-year-olds would be able to articulate what happened to her," the judge said.

The judge considered Al Bayati's brutal upbringing in Iraq before 10 months on Christmas Island as an asylum seeker a decade ago.

Al Bayati still denies the crime but his DNA was found on the girl's underwear

He will be eligible for parole in July 2021. He's lilely to be placed in detention if he's not deported immediately after his sentence.

- with AAP