Illegal Immigrant from Jamaica Jailed over Rapes

Some more barely believable blundering from the Home Office:

A convicted sex attacker who assaulted two women after he should have been deported has been jailed.

Andrew Rowe, a Jamaican national, was jailed for 18 months in 2000 after he admitted indecently assaulting a 14-year-old girl in south London.

He should have been deported after his release but managed to remain in the UK and attacked two 18-year-old women in 2005 and January this year.

Rowe, 36, was given an indeterminate sentence at Southwark Crown Court.

His solicitor admitted to the court Rowe had failed to sign the sex offenders' register in an attempt to avoid deportation.

Judge John Price said in both the two attacks Rowe approached his victims and charmed them, persuading them to get into his car in south London.

He then drove them to empty flats before assaulting them.

Rowe, of no fixed address, was convicted of rape, assault by penetration and attempted rape at a hearing earlier this year. He had denied all the charges.

He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, possession of drugs and failure to register as a sex offender.

Sentencing him, Judge Price said: "When the girls don't do what you want them to do, you get angry. You get violent with them.

"You won't be released until those assessing you think you are safe to be released."

He added that Rowe would not be assessed until at least six years had passed.

Rowe was ordered to serve three months concurrently for twice failing to register as a sex offender and disqualified from driving for 12 months.

Andrew Copeland, defending Rowe, said he had been arrested on 3 February after police spotted him driving erratically in south London.

Officers found him in possession of cocaine and it was after his arrest that it became known he was wanted for the two sex assaults.

Mr Copeland said Rowe had failed to sign the register because it meant his illegal status would be noticed.

He said: "It wasn't to hide his sexual activities but to avoid deportation from the country."

David Wood, head of detention and criminality for the UK Border Agency described the crime as "heinous" and said the authorities would seek to deport Rowe at the end of his sentence.

He added: "Last year we radically reformed the system for making the removal of foreign national prisoners more secure, any foreign criminal serving more than 12 months in prison is automatically considered for deportation.

"Last year we sent home a record 5,395 foreign national prisoners including over 50 killers and attempted killers, over 200 sex offenders and more than 1,500 drug offenders."

Yes - and you let them all in in the first place!

Do they want a pat on the back?