Anger as killer asylum seeker stays in the UK

Hit-and-run driver Aso Mohammed Ibrahim, 33, an Iraqi Kurd, left 12-year-old Amy Houston dying under the wheels of his car while already banned from driving.

He was jailed for four months but allowed to remain in the UK on his release.

Backed by Amy's father Paul Houston, the UK Border Agency appealed against that decision.

Mr Houston, 41, from Darwen, Lancashire, asked judges at the hearing to bring "my seven years of hell to an end" by sending Ibrahim back to Iraq.

He was left to make the decision to turn off Amy's life support machine hours after the crash in Blackburn, Lancs, in November 2003.

He has since campaigned to get Ibrahim deported in a tortuous legal battle spanning seven years.

Last month he handed in a letter to judges, containing his impassioned plea.

The Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber sitting in Manchester also heard Ibrahim, who now has a family in the UK, had a string of criminal convictions.

But Ibrahim's lawyers claimed human rights laws permitted him to remain in the country on the grounds of his right to life and to family life.

And yesterday two senior immigration judges rejected the appeal.

Reacting to the ruling, Mr Houston said he was "frustrated and angry" at the decision.

"I'm battling away here on my own. This is a perversity of our society.

"What are the judges saying here? They are saying it doesn't matter what you do when you come here, who you kill, what laws you break, as long as you have a child here you can stay?

"You work hard, play by the rules, pay your taxes and this is how you get treated. What does that say about politicians, our leaders and the legal system? It's a joke.

"He's not a life-saving surgeon or a Nobel prize winner. He was a criminal before, a criminal now and he will continue being a criminal.

"How can he say he's deprived of his right to a family life? The only person deprived of a family life is me. Amy was my only family."

Mr Houston was not allowed to address judges directly at the appeal hearing.

Lawyers for the Border Agency asked for Ibrahim to be deported on the ground that the judge who originally allowed him leave to remain on the basis of his right to a family life did so incorrectly.

Although he now has two children, there was little evidence he was living at the same address and so could not claim a right to family life, it was argued.

The judges were also told of Ibrahim's convictions, including a further incident of driving while disqualified in 2006, harassment and possession of drugs.

But Senior Immigration Judges Lane and Taylor, in a reserved judgment made public yesterday, rejected the appeal.

They said the original decision should stand but added that the outcome might well have been different if the process to remove Ibrahim had begun before he had children.

Ibrahim knocked down Amy near the home of her mother, Joanne Cocker, from whom Mr Houston is divorced.

He was already serving a nine-month driving ban for not having insurance or a licence.

He ran off but later handed himself in to police.

Ibrahim was jailed for four months after admitting driving while disqualified and failing to stop after an accident.

After serving his sentence, Ibrahim, who came to the UK in 2001, met a British woman, mother of his children Harry, four, and Zara, three.