Eritrean migrant raped woman after avoiding deportation for previous sexual assault

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Radiet Meles arrived in the UK clandestinely in 2015, concealed inside a lorry that passed through the Channel Tunnel

An Eritrean migrant who entered Britain illegally has been convicted of raping a woman after authorities failed to deport him from the country following an earlier sexual offence.

Radiet Meles, 35, who is a former Eritrean soldier, was found guilty by a jury at Cardiff Crown Court after a five-day trial.

Despite serving a five-year prison sentence for the attempted rape of an unconscious woman at a house party in Newport, South Wales, Meles was neither deported nor monitored upon his release.

The registered sex offender was instead permitted to return to Newport, where he went on to attack another woman.

Meles arrived in the UK clandestinely in 2015, concealed inside a lorry that passed through the Channel Tunnel.

After just two days in custody, he was taken to Newport, where he later found work at a car wash and an Amazon distribution centre.

His first conviction came in February 2019, when he was acquitted of rape but found guilty of attempted rape after sexually assaulting a heavily intoxicated woman who was unconscious at a house party.

At sentencing, Judge Christopher Vosper QC said: "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."

The incident that led to his first conviction took place on August 13 2018, when the victim had been drinking in Newport city centre before attending a house party with others.

Prosecutor Heath Edwards told the court: "The complainant herself has little clear recollection of the events or the chronology at this time as she was heavily intoxicated."

He added: "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."

Mr Edwards continued: "That was not something that she had consented to she was far too drunk for that."

Judge Vosper told Meles during sentencing: "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."

Meles was taken into custody in March this year after police responded to reports of an assault on another woman.

He denied both rape and assault by beating, but a jury at Cardiff Crown Court returned guilty verdicts on both counts following a trial lasting five days.

During his earlier trial, the court heard that Meles speaks virtually no English and that imprisonment would be a "burdensome experience" given his distance from his home country.

He required a Tigrinya interpreter throughout the proceedings.

Now residing at West Park Road in Newport, Meles has been told to expect a "lengthy custodial" sentence when he returns to court for sentencing in November.