Sex victim wins 6-year battle to have her attacker deported

A woman sexually assaulted by an immigrant yesterday won her six-and-a-half year battle to have her attacker deported.

Gabrielle Browne, 44, was training for the London Marathon on a towpath when she was attacked by Mohamed Kendeh in 2003.

The 22-year-old immigrant, from Sierra Leone, also admitted carrying out a string of assaults on at least 11 women - striking when they were alone or with children in public parks.

However, despite attempts by the Home Office to deport him, Britain's top immigration judge refused, claiming that to do so would breach his human rights.

Yesterday, a crown court judge overruled that controversial judgement.

Mrs Browne, a mother of two, who has waived her right to anonymity, broke down in tears after being told she had won her fight for justice.

She said: 'It is quite possible that lots of victims just let the police get on with it.

'But if I hadn't chased what happened following his release in 2007 then he would never have been deported.

'I pushed for an exclusion zone to be set-up in the area of the attacks and told police there were immigration issues each time he was arrested for another offence so steps could be taken to deport him.

'I have also pursued it through my MP, who put pressure on the Home Office to find out what was happening.

'I have fought for his deportation for a very long time. I can't undo what he did to me and the affect that has had on me and my family.

'But if I can stop him from reoffending against other women then there is some value to what I am doing.'

Kendeh, then 16, grabbed Mrs Browne from behind before dragging her along the ground and trying to rape her.

After his arrest, she discovered he had recently been released from a young offenders institution after being found guilty of four sexual assaults on lone women when he was just 15.

All of the attacks took place in parks - two on women who had young children with them at the time.

Kendeh, then a heavy cannabis smoker, had also committed burglaries, theft, arson, drug offences and taken a vehicle without consent.

Despite this history, Kendeh was released on bail - only to carry out another attack on a woman by herself in her home a month later.

He was jailed at the Old Bailey for the two attacks, and the Home Office made attempts to deport him.

However, these requests were refused by top immigration judge Sir Henry Hodge.

He said although the sex attacker had been refused British citizenship and was likely to reoffend, sending him back to Sierra Leone would breach his right to a family life.

But Mrs Browne refused to give up. She continued to pressure MPs and police each time he came up for parole, and pushed for an exclusion zone to be set up in Southwark, Central London - the area where most of the assaults took place.

And yesterday, during sentencing for his latest crime, a street robbery, committed after his release in June this year, Judge Simon Pratt at Croydon Crown Court finally recommended Kendeh be deported afterwards.

Sentencing Kendeh to five and half years in jail and two years on licence, Judge Pratt said: 'You targeted another woman in circumstances where she was extremely vulnerable.

'Such vulnerability is every woman's nightmare. You have had ample experience of the terror that you have caused lone women and you admitted that you saw her as easy to rob because you could overpower her.

'You are 22 and you have an appalling record for sexual assaults on lone females, as well as a previous conviction for a robbery in 2003.

'I unhesitatingly view you to be a dangerous offender and I am firmly of the view that you present a serious risk to the public by the commissioning of serious and unspecified offences.

'I regard your continuing presence in this country as contrary to this country's good and I recommend your deportation.'

Olatokunbo Atanda, for the defence, said yesterday: 'Mr Kendeh is 22, he has had a very troubled childhood, he has been incarcerated for most of his life and is unable to deal with normal life anymore.

'He has had no other life, it seems, apart from being incarcerated from a young age to adulthood.'

Daily Mail

Stuff his human rights. Where were the human rights of his victims?

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