Payout for sex attacker after rights ‘breached’

The 25-year-old man, who was referred to in court as “JS”, was aged 16 when he arrived in the UK in 2004, hidden in the back of a lorry and had made two claims for asylum.

He comes from the Darfur area of Sudan and was detained for just over two years while the Home Secretary attempted to deport him after he completed his four-year criminal sentence in a young offenders’ institution following his conviction on two ‘sample’ offences of sexual activity with a girl.

The appeal judges said yesterday that eight months of his detention was “unreasonable and unlawful” and he was entitled to damages because of Home Office administrative delays before it was decided he could not be deported on human rights grounds.

The judges said the administrative delays were unaccounted for, adding “the lack of any explanation makes difficult to hold that the period of detention was reasonable”.

JS successfully appealed against a ruling by Deputy High Court judge Philip Mott QC in January this year dismissing his compensation claim on all grounds.

Lord Dyson, Master of the Rolls, sitting with Lord Justice McFarlane and Lady Justice Sharp, unanimously ruled his appeal must succeed and sent the case back to London’s High Court to decide on damages.