For the "You have to be sh*tting me" file

Rapist wins his legal fight to stay in Britain

A refugee who kidnapped and raped a mother-of-two on Christmas Day has won a legal fight to stay in Britain because deportation would be "against his human rights".

Here's the deal:

Joel Naitamu, 29, from Kenya, pounced on his 43-year-old victim as she parked her car in east London late on 24 December, 1995. He threatened to stab her, told her that she would die if she screamed, held her captive for three hours and raped her three times.

Jailing him for 11 years in 1996 for abduction, false imprisonment, threats to kill and three counts of rape, the Old Bailey Judge Valerie Pearlman told him: "Nothing can excuse or explain your wicked behaviour.

"Her [the victim's] life has totally changed. She now has to have psychological help to deal with the nightmares. She finds it difficult to leave home at all and suffers dreadful nightmares and terrible flashbacks. You are a danger to the public."

His victim was assured repeatedly that he would be deported once he had served his sentence. Naitamu, however, was released from prison earlier this year, and, after five immigration hearings, has secured refugee status and the right to stay in Britain.

A Home Office attempt to have him deported as "a danger to the community" has been thwarted by Jeremy Gibb, an immigration adjudicator, who ruled that the convicted rapist was protected by the European Convention on Human Rights

Er, how's that work?

He accepted that deportation would contravene Naitamu's "right to respect for private family life", protected by Article 8 of the European Convention.

Naitamu, is now living in east London with a daughter and a wife from Dominica who is said to be claiming income support and benefits.

Indeed.