Daily Mail
November 18, 2013
Legal proceedings over the aborted deportation of an African migrant who lured a vulnerable schoolgirl to a house for sex have cost the British taxpayer £350,000 – and he may now receive tens of thousands in compensation.
Jumaa Kater Saleh, 24, was convicted as part of a predatory sex gang for the ‘deliberate, targeted abuse of a young and vulnerable girl’, who was aged 13 at the time.
But he was allowed to remain in Britain under human rights law because he faced mistreatment if sent back to Sudan.
He claimed he was a member of the Zaghawa tribe, which has been persecuted by government forces and Arab tribe militia.
His trial cost an estimated £100,000, his asylum support costs drained the public purse of £20,000 and it cost more than £200,000 to keep him detained, firstly in jail and then in an immigration centre.
The Sunday Telegraph reported the total cost of interpreters alone was £25,000.
Details of the case emerged as Saleh went to court to demand compensation from the Government for locking him up. He claimed he was unlawfully detained following his prison sentence, when he was kept behind bars to protect the public.
His case was thrown out in January but the Court of Appeal has now ruled that eight months of his detention was unlawful.
The judges decided he was entitled to compensation as a result of Home Office administrative delays before it was decided that he could not be deported on human rights grounds.
The decision has sparked outrage.
The father of Saleh’s victim called the decision ‘crazy’ and said his daughter would never be free of what happened to her.
He said: ‘He was a paedophile preying on young girls, yet he was only locked up for two years. What does he have to be compensated for?