Judges Rule it Would ‘Not Be Fair’ to Deport Paedophile Refugee

high-court
N Chadwick/Geograph

Paedophile refugee Wilfred Mosira will not be deported to his native Zimbabwe despite being in no danger there because it would “not be fair”, according to judges at the Court of Appeal.

Mosira, 31, was convicted on two counts of “sexual activity with an underage girl who was 13” in 2012 and received a short three-year sentence, reports the Daily Mail.

It appears he only served part of this sentence in custody, as by 2014 a probation officer was warning he “posed a high risk of committing further sex offences”. However, the officer rowed back from this in 2015, claiming he had gone on to establish a “healthy and supportive relationship with a partner”.

Lord Justice Philip Sales, who has been accused of being a beneficiary of cronyism under Tony Blair’s government in the past, conceded: “There is no dispute that this constituted serious criminal offending [and] also no dispute that Mr Mosira qualifies as a foreign criminal.”

But he ruled against the Government, which has been tied up in court trying to deport the refugee for four-and-a-half years, despite acknowledging he faced no threat of persecution in his native Zimbabwe, saying this would “not be fair”.

Mosira’s legal team had argued he should not be deported because he had ties to Robert Mugabe’s opposition. This was found to be false by judges in lower courts, who pointed out that Mosira had travelled to Zimbabwe as recently as 2010 with no issues.

Justice Sales, however, claimed lawyers should never have been wrangling over whether or not Mosira would be in danger in Zimbabwe in the first place, as he was not awarded refugee status on that basis.

Instead, he had been awarded it under a scheme operated by Blair, which allowed the children of refugees to claim the same status as their parents.

Mosira did so at the age of 17, his mother having been awarded refugee status not because she was in any danger in Zimbabwe, but because she was HIV positive and wanted to be treated by the NHS.

Government lawyers argued that Mosira should not have been treated as a refugee in the first place because of this, but Sales insisted that “justice requires that we refuse permission to raise it at the eleventh hour on this appeal”.

Follow Jack Montgomery on Twitter: @JackBMontgomery

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.