Sex attack victim wins nine-year battle to see immigrant deported after his human rights claims

By
Jack Doyle

Last updated at 10:59 PM on 15th February 2012

Sexual-assault victim Gabriel Browne waived her right to anonymity to condemn the criminal justice system

Sexual-assault victim Gabriel Browne
waived her right to anonymity to condemn the criminal justice system

A woman who was sexually assaulted by a youth who came to this country as an immigrant has finally won her nine-year battle to see him deported.

Gabrielle Browne was out training for the London Marathon when Mohamed Kendeh pinned her down and tried to rape her.

His crimes include burglary, arson and robbery as well as a total of 11 sex assaults.

But he was allowed to stay in Britain because of Article 8 of the Human Rights Act – his right to a ‘private and family life’.

Undeterred by a string of immigration court rulings and failures by the police and prosecutors, Mrs Browne pursued the case doggedly and abandoned her legal right to anonymity.

On Sunday her attacker was finally put on a plane and flown back to his native Sierra Leone.

Mrs Browne told the Daily Mail yesterday: ‘He should have been thrown out years earlier – to save me and all his other victims the torture of being attacked.

‘I support human rights, but what is wrong is how Article 8 has been used.

The courts don’t consider my rights as a victim, they are just considering his rights as an offender.’

Mohamed Kendeh, whose crimes include robbery and 11 sex assaults, was allowed to stay in the UK because of his right to a 'private and family life' under the Human Rights Act

Mohamed Kendeh, whose crimes include robbery and 11 sex assaults, was allowed to stay in the UK because of his right to a ‘private and family life’ under the Human Rights Act

The IT worker was attacked in March 2003 when she was out running near her home in Camberwell, South London.

Kendeh, then 16, launched a vicious sexual assault before Mrs Browne fought him off. He was caught and after initially denying the offence pleaded guilty to attempted rape.

Kendeh was sentenced to four years in a young offender institution in February 2005.

Efforts were made to deport him but in August 2006 an immigration judge ruled he could not be removed. Kendeh, who came to the UK in 1994, was a heavy user of cannabis and had started his own crime gang aged 15, the immigration court heard.

His long history of appalling sex attacks and other offences was also revealed to the hearing. Despite the earlier crimes, he had never before been considered for deportation. Astonishingly, the judge in the case praised Kendeh’s ‘frankness and honesty’ and said there were ‘compassionate circumstances’.

Describing Kendeh as ‘one of us’ the judge said it would be an ‘unjustifiable interference’ with his right to a private and family life, under Article 8 of the Human Rights Act, to send him back home.

Mrs Browne lobbied MPs and the police to keep the deportation case alive. She hadn’t even been notified when the case first went to the immigration court and wasn’t given the chance to give evidence.

It was only by pestering her MP that she was able to find out details of the hearing and keep pressure on the Government to launch an appeal.

Meanwhile Kendeh had served his sentence and was put into immigration detention pending efforts to remove him. But he was given bail and within months was arrested for robbing a woman and recalled to custody. On Mrs Browne’s insistence police asked for him to be deported.

Finally, last November, an immigration appeal tribunal ruled he should be removed. It found ‘no evidence’ he has any connection with his immediate family who also live in the UK.

Last night immigration minister Damian Green said he was ‘pleased’ Kendeh had been returned home.

He said: ‘Kendeh committed appalling crimes but made every attempt through the courts to thwart his removal and further prolong the suffering of his victims.

‘For too long Article 8 has been used to place the family rights of foreign criminals and immigration offenders above the rights of the British public.

‘This is why we will change  the immigration rules to  reinforce the public interest in  seeing foreign criminals and  those who have breached our immigration laws removed from this country.’

Here’s what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts,
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The comments below have been moderated in advance.

Well done to you. You are the sort of person who should be running this country – not this lot or the lot before. You are really brave and I hope now others will follow in your footsteps.

Give that woman a head of department job. She could start by finding out why he had another 3 months here since the November ruling.

I give it 6 months before he is back.

Justice at last for a very brave Lady

My god- at last some coining sense.

How long will be it before this ratbag sneaks back into the country ?. Nothing but praise for Gabriel Browne who put up a fight when he attacked her, and again to get shot of him back to Sierra Leone.

He will have already booking his return flight to the UK, and our useless Boarder Agency will let him walk straight in.

How? Why?! When did we let the nutters run the asylum?! Thank goodness this woman was strong and took it upon herself to get this scum sent back to where he came from. Section 8 is just a joke. A right to a family life? When he has sexually attacked so many women. What about THEIR right to a family life and safety in their own country?! Shame on Cameron and the numpties running Britain’s sham Courts.

1 down…….thousands and thousands to go. Anyone with a criminal conviction should not be allowed into the uk!

Bye bye rapist. Next.

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