Migrant Rapist Escapes Deportation After 'Learning His Lesson' Despite Nine-Year Delay in Acknowledging His Crime

A RAPIST who attacked a woman while she was sleeping cannot be deported from the UK because he has “learned his lesson”.

Italian national Hendrix Ekwen, 34, has won a battle against being kicked out the country despite a report finding that he poses “a high risk of serious harm” to women.

He was sentenced to eight years in in May 2021 for a rape committed in 2017.

During the terrifying attack his victim “was awoken, by someone having sexual intercourse with her, whilst lying behind her.”

Ekwen, who moved to the UK in 2009, maintained his innocence at his trial at Newcastle Crown Court and sought to challenge his conviction after he was sentenced.

The sought to strip him of his Settlement Scheme status and deport him to .

But during a recent hearing for his appeal against his deportation, Judge Rebecca Anne Pickering accepted that he has recently made a “full acceptance of responsibility” and matured – and so allowed him to stay.

Her conclusions are despite a risk assessment carried out while he was in prison which found he displayed “sexual entitlement” and a “lack of victim empathy”.

Shockingly, the judge also took into account the fact that Ekwen went to college to study sports coaching and played before he carried out the offence while deciding if he could stay.

Having arrived in the UK aged 18 in 2009, between 2012 and 2014, he was involved in five incidents and in 2015 he received a conditional discharge for possession of .

In 2020 he made an application under the European Union Settlement Scheme which would let him stay in the country.

It was later that year that he was found guilty of rape and was sentenced in 2021.

Despite the previous convictions he can now remain in the UK after Ekwen said he has “learned his lesson” and that he didn’t want to be known as “that kind of person’”.

In a judgment published on Monday [AUG 17], Judge Pickering said that the Home Office had not “established that there genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat” to public safety by allowing Ekwen to stay in the UK.

She said: “I accept that he now acknowledges that what occurred was rape. I accept that he understands the impact of his conduct upon the victim. I accept that he takes responsibility for his actions and that this development has been gradual rather than opportunistic.”

She concludes that his appeal against his deportation is allowed under the (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016 and “on grounds” A Home Office spokesperson said: “We have sought permission to appeal to the via the Upper Tribunal.

“Nearly 10,000 foreign criminals including murderers and rapists have been removed since the last election – a 36% increase on the 21 months prior.

“Any foreign national who receives a prison sentence in the UK is referred for deportation at the earliest opportunity and will be barred from ever returning.”