Eritrean illegal migrant raped woman on night out after being freed from jail after previous sex attack instead of being kicked out of the country
- See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source
By WILL HALLOWELL, NEWS REPORTER
Published: | Updated:
An illegal immigrant raped a woman on a night out after being freed from prison for a previous sex attack.
Radiet Meles, 35, an ex-soldier from Eritrea, was expected to be deported after finishing his sentence for a horrific sexual assault in 2019.
However he was allowed to stay in Britain after serving a five-year sentence for the attempted rape of an unconscious woman at a house party in Newport, South Wales.
Meles came to the UK through the Channel Tunnel in 2015 after hiding in a lorry, a court was told.
After two days in custody he was transported to Newport where he worked at a car wash and Amazon distribution centre.
Following his 2019 conviction Judge Christopher Vosper told him: 'After your release, it's likely you will be held in an immigration detention centre.
'As a consequence of this offence and sentence, the Home Secretary is likely to make a deportation order in your case.'
But the registered sex offender was allowed to return to Newport after his release and was not being monitored.
Illegal immigrant Radiet Meles, 35, who came to the UK on the back of a lorry in 2015, raped a woman on a night out after being freed from prison for a previous sex attack
He denied rape and assault by beating but was found guilty by a jury at Cardiff Crown Court (File image)
Meles was arrested in March this year after police were called to reports of an attack on another woman.
He denied rape and assault by beating but was found guilty by a jury at Cardiff Crown Court following a five-day trial.
Jurors at his first trial were told Meles speaks hardly any English and prison would be a 'burdensome experience' because he is a long way from home.
Meles, of West Park Road, Newport, was told he faces a 'lengthy custodial' term when he is sentenced in November.
In February 2019 he was cleared of rape but convicted of attempted rape after he 'took advantage' of the 'heavily intoxicated' victim who was unconscious.
Prosecutor Heath Edwards told the jury that on August 13, 2018 the victim had been drinking in Newport city centre before she and others went to the house party.
He said: 'The complainant herself has little clear recollection of the events or the chronology at this time as she was heavily intoxicated.
'The next memory she has of the events that night is of her being awoken in the back of an ambulance by a police officer and being told that the defendant had been having sex with her.
'That was not something that she had consented to – she was far too drunk for that.'
Meles, who needed a Tigrinya interpreter, pleaded not guilty to both charges, telling the trial he did not have sexual intercourse with the woman.
During sentencing, Judge Christopher Vosper QC told the sex attacker: 'You saw that the victim was heavily intoxicated and, to all intents and purposes, she was unconscious.
'You had formed an intention to take advantage of her if you could.'
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.