@PhilipDwyer

A Congolese migrant who became the poster boy for anti-deportation campaigners has been jailed for raping and impregnating a 15 year old girl.

There were multiple failed attempts to deport Anicet Mayela since a court refused his asylum request in 2004, including at a planned deportation flight in 2005, where the deportation was blocked by protests from the cabin crew of Air France, stopping it from leaving the UK.

Another attempt to deport him failed when Mayela claimed that he had been injured in an isolation cell at a Removal Centre in Middlesex.

In his fight to resist deportation, Mayela was backed by a number of anti-racist NGO's, including the Institute of Race Relations.

Mayela actually became a "poster boy" for anti-racist campaigners after a photo of him protesting with a sign reading "migrants are not criminals" circulated online.

After initially refusing Mayela’s asylum claim in 2004, and after the failed attempts to deport him caused by anti-racist protesters, the UK Home Office granted Mayela leave to remain on appeal in 2010.

Last December, 19 years after he was ordered to be deported, Mayela raped a 15 year old girl in Oxfordshire, leading to her pregnancy.

Yesterday, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with the judge recognising that he continued to deny the crime, and showed no remorse or guilt. He will serve only two-thirds of this in prison, with the remainder served "in the community".

The judge made an allowance for Mayela being "unable" to control his "sexual impulses" because of alcohol, despite him still showing no remorse for the crime.

Every anti-racist campaigner and institution deserves a share of the responsibility for this crime.

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