Migrant dealing with jail after raping woman can not change his responsible plea
A failed asylum seeker who raped a 15-year-old girl after his deportation was blocked by cabin crew has been told he cannot change his plea to not guilty.
Anicet Mayela, 40, who once protested outside a detention centre with a sign that read ‘migrants are not criminals’, admitted to the attack of December last year at Oxford Crown Court in April.
The Congolese national appeared at the same court on Thursday in a bid to change his guilty plea after claiming he had not had proper legal advice.
But rejecting his request, Judge Nigel Daly said Mayela had made an ‘unequivocal plea of guilty’ at the last hearing, which he could ‘see no reason to vacate’.
‘From the moment of his arrest he was firmly of the view that he was going to plead guilty. I will not accept the vacating of his plea,’ Judge Daly said.
Anicet Mayela, 40, once protested outside a detention centre with a sign that read ‘migrants are not criminals’
A deportation flight was planned for May 2005, but the removal was prevented by Air France crew (file image)
Mayela, from Oxford, was joined in the dock by a French interpreter and several family members watched the short hearing from the public gallery.
After his court appearance earlier this year, The Sun reported several unsuccessful attempts had previously been made to remove him from the UK before he was given permission to stay in the country.
It is understood the Home Office initially refused Mayela’s asylum claim in 2004 but he successfully challenged the decision in the courts and was eventually granted leave to remain on appeal in 2010.
Mayela was held at Campsfield House Detention Centre in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, where he was later pictured with a ‘stop detention’ sign following his release.
A deportation flight was initially planned for May 2005, but the removal was foiled by Air France crew, who stopped the flight taking off from Southampton.
The cabin crew’s intervention came amid claims Mayela’s hand had been broken by deportation minders who handcuffed his wrists and taped his legs together.
Weeks later, Mayela won leave to remain after lawyers said that deportation would be against his human rights while police investigated the handlers for alleged assault.
He was released two days later and took part in a campaign to close Campsfield House, where he had been detained.
According to an article published by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) in 2005, he was served three removal notices from the UK.
Mayela was held at Campsfield House Detention Centre in Kidlington, where he was later pictured protesting with a ‘stop detention’ sign following his release
The IRR report said Mayela paid an agent to help him flee his home country in 2004 because his life was in danger and that he initially lived in Plymouth while his initial asylum claim was considered.
But this was refused and his first appeal was dismissed by the courts later that year.
By 2005 he was being held in immigration detention centres while attempts were made to deport him but he was later released.
Mayela, thought to be a former economics student, also appears to have supported protests outside detention centres that same year.
He should expect jail time when he is sentenced on November 14, the judge said.
