A Sudanese asylum seeker who raped a 12-year-old girl has been allowed to remain in Britain – after a judge ruled it would breach his human rights to deport him

Sani Adil Ali was jailed for raping the girl just months after he was given refugee status. When he was sentenced, another judge described him as a potential danger to young girls and put him on the Sex Offenders’ Register for the rest of his life. But after serving a three-year sentence, an immigration tribunal ruled that Ali could stay in Britain on the grounds that he could be in danger if he returned to Sudan. Senior immigration judge Jonathan Perkins allowed the 28-year-old to remain in Britain, even though the rapist’s probation officers found that he presented some risk to young people. It is not the first time that Judge Perkins has made a controversial decision. Recently, he allowed an Afghan Muslim, who claimed he killed people while fighting for the Taliban, to remain in Britain. It has also been reported that Judge Perkins has often allowed foreign criminals to remain in Britain because of their right to a family life under the Human Rights Act. His latest decision is another setback for Home Secretary Theresa May, whose plans to crack down on the way foreign criminals use human rights to avoid being deported appear to be repeatedly undermined by the courts. Ali, who is from the Darfur region, arrived in Britain in October 2003 and was awarded refugee status in February 2005. But two months later he was arrested at his address in Middlesbrough over the rape of a 12-year-old Hungarian girl. Ali had attacked her while staying with her family during a five-day trip to Sheffield. The victim’s family had offered to put him up while he visited his friend, Kamel Ahmed, then 22, also from Darfur. Ali and Ahmed knew each other and the girl’s family from refugee camps in Italy and France. Ali, who pleaded guilty to one count of child rape, was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment at Sheffield Crown Court. Ahmed was convicted of three counts of child rape and jailed for ten years. When Ali was released from Doncaster jail in 2008, the Home Office ordered that he return to Sudan and he was locked up in an immigration removal center. Ali appealed to the immigration court and when a judge rejected his bid, he mounted a fresh appeal to the Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber. At the Sheffield hearing, Judge Perkins ruled that removing Ali, who comes from the Zaghawa tribe, would breach his rights under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits torture or inhumane punishment. Judge Perkins referred to a 2009 ruling which stated that non-Arab tribes such as the Zaghawa are at risk of persecution in Darfur and cannot reasonably be expected to relocate elsewhere in Sudan.