Crying Again!

A CONVICTED rapist and paedophile is to receive damages paid by taxpayers after a European court found his human rights had been breached.

Somali Mustafa Abdi, who was sentenced to eight years in jail in 1998 for rape and indecency with a child, was unlawfully detained for two-and-a-half years as he awaited deportation, the European Courts of Human Rights said.The Strasbourg court found this to be a breach of his right to liberty and has ordered the Government to pay E1,500 (£1,277) in damages and E7,000 (£5,960) for his lawyers’ costs and expenses.Abdi, who was born in 1975 and is detained in HMP Brixton, arrived in the UK in 1995 and, although refused asylum, was granted exceptional leave to remain in the UK until February 2000.While serving his sentence in 2002, the then home secretary, David Blunkett, ordered Abdi’s deportation and issued an authority for detention until the making of a deportation order.In April 2004, Mr Blunkett authorised Abdi’s detention until his deportation.