A foreign rapist who Britain has been unable to deport has won ‘substantial’ compensation for unlawful detention, the Mail on Sunday can reveal.
In 2015, Gambian Ebou Jasseh, 41, tricked a drunken woman into going back to his flat in Watford before attacking her in his bathroom.
He targeted her after she had been thrown out of a nightclub, luring her with a promise that he was hosting a party. He was jailed for six years over the attack.
Jasseh, who arrived in the UK in 2004 on a six-month visa, was also arrested in 2010 for allegedly sexually assaulting another woman in Watford. He denied the accusation and no charges were brought.
He had applied for asylum, but when it was refused he stated he would return home to Gambia voluntarily. He did not, and ever since he has been engaged in frantic legal bids to remain in the UK.
He has mounted at least six legal challenges to Home Office attempts to deport him, including pleas over his mental health and the possibility of facing harm in his home country.
Jasseh was lined up to be returned to Gambia when his prison sentence came to an end in 2019.
But he was returned to jail after breaching the terms of his tagging and licence, and then was held in Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre near Heathrow Airport as the Home Office prepared to send him back.
In 2015, Gambian Ebou Jasseh, 41, tricked a drunken woman into going back to his flat in Watford before attacking her in his bathroom
Jasseh has mounted at least six legal challenges to Home Office attempts to deport him, including pleas over his mental health and the possibility of facing harm in his home country
He was returned to jail after breaching the terms of his tagging and licence, and then was held in Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre near Heathrow Airport (pictured)
A High Court judge has ruled he should not have been placed in the centre because at that time it was unlikely that the Home Office would be able to return him to Gambia.
He found that the Home Office had acted in an ‘oppressive’ manner – and so Jasseh was awarded ‘substantial’ compensatory damages. The amount is undisclosed.
The Home Office was still trying to kick him out right up until last week, but the long-running legal wrangling continued. It is refusing to say whether Jasseh has finally been returned.
Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: ‘This is a disgrace. It’s a scandal.
‘How on earth has this man won compensation? It’s a horrific case. It shows how utterly out of touch our system is.’
One woman, who was raped in a similar situation to the victim in this case, said: ‘Rape victims are denied support and are not treated fairly as it is.
‘Then to hear this man has won compensation is utterly sickening.’
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We make no apology for wanting to remove foreign national offenders at the earliest opportunity.
‘We work with law enforcement to ensure there is no barrier to deport foreign criminals, as it is in the public interest for these people to be removed swiftly.’