Sri Lankan asylum seeker saved from deportation after public campaign is jailed for brutal sex attack on 21-year-old

AN ASYLUM seeker who avoided deportation back to Sri Lanka after a public campaign was today jailed for 30 months after admitting a vile sexual attack.

Sivarajah Suganthan, who spent 37 days in a detention centre, was allowed to remain in the UK in 2011 thanks to a petition backed by Lib Dem MP Stephen Williams.

Mr Williams lobbied immigration minister Damian Green to grant him asylum and presented an 800-name petition to Parliament calling for the deportation threats to end.

Suganthan, 31, went to live with friends in Bristol in 2011 but three years later he sexually abused a 21 year-old woman while staying at a night shelter in St Paul's.

The dad-of-two was to face trial at Bristol Crown Court but pleaded guilty to sexual assault by penetration.

The court heard Suganthan "preyed" on a vulnerable 21 year-old who had rejected his advances at a night shelter.

She woke at 3am to find her knickers pulled down and there was DNA evidence that Suganthan had also ejaculated during the assault.

After initially pleading not guilty, he confessed to the crime on the day of his trial - but still maintains he "doesn't remember doing it", the court heard.

Two and a half years after the attack, he has been finally jailed by a judge who slammed the "inexplicable" delay in getting the case to court.

Judge Martin Picton called for a review of the Crown Prosecution Service's handling and said "lessons should be learned" to ensure it "never happens again".

He told Suganthan - who was supported in court by his English girlfriend - the incident had had a "devastating" impact on his victim's life.

She still suffers from anxiety and depression and struggles to leave the house.

He said: "Your victim made quite clear to you earlier in the evening that she was not receptive of your attention and she was not welcoming of any sexual contact.

He added: "I fully accept that you have had terrible experiences in your life.

"There is obviously a different side to your character that is much more creditable than your awful actions on this night appear to demonstrate."

The court heard the assaulted happened at a night shelter in Bristol, where the woman was the only female in the dorm.

Earlier in the night Suganthan touched her on the bottom and asked her if she wanted to share a shower with him but she declined.

Defending, Anjali Gohil said Suganthan had a "terrible background", and was trafficked from Sri Lanka to India and Africa and arrived on British shores in 1999.

She said: "He was orphaned at six and was trafficked after that and made to work in slave-like conditions.

";In the two long years since this took place, he has turned himself around."

Suganthan pleaded guilty to sexual assault by penetration and will serve half his sentence.

When Suganthan was released from detention in 2011 Caroline Beatty, manager of the Refugee Welcome Centre, said: "We wanted to thank Mr Williams for his help and are sure that it was his intervention that meant Siva was released.

"We are hoping that we can count on his support in the future when he makes his fresh claim."

Mr Williams, MP for Bristol West, said at the time: "It was wonderful to meet Siva in person and to see that he was happy and smiling and delighted to be back among friends in Bristol.

"I am pleased that I and my staff were able to be of help."

Suganthan came to the UK in 1999 at the age of 14. His initial claim for asylum was refused in 2003, and dismissed a second time in 2004 following an appeal.

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