A white woman who was sexually assaulted by a black youth who came to Britain 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, Browne pursued the case doggedly and abandoned her legal right to anonymity. Her attacker was finally been put on a plane and flown back to his native Sierra Leone in Africa. 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 Browne fought him off. He was caught and after initially denying the offense 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 Britain 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 offenses 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 that there were compassionate circumstances. Describing Kendeh as one of us the judge said that 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. 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 Browne’s insistence police asked for him to be deported. Finally, in November 2011, an immigration appeal tribunal ruled that he should be removed. It found no evidence that he has any connection with his immediate family who also live in Britain.