AN illegal migrant was freed instead of being deported for a sex attack before going on to rape a woman on a night out.
Eritrean former soldier Radiet Meles, 35, was expected to be deported once he had served his sentence for a sexual assault in 2019.
However, having served a five-year sentence for the attempted rape of an unconscious woman at a house party in Newport, South Wales, he was allowed to remain in the UK.
Cardiff Crown Court heard that Meles had come to Britain in 2015 having hid in a lorry which travelled through the Channel Tunnel.
He spent two days in custody before being taken to Newport where he worked at an Amazon distribution centre and also at a car wash.
After his 2019 conviction Judge Christopher Vosper said: : “After your release, it’s likely you will be held in an immigration detention centre.
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“As a consequence of this offence and sentence, the Home Secretary is likely to make a deportation order in your case.”
Despite his criminal record Meles was allowed to return to Newport after he was released and was not being monitored.
He was then arrested in March this year after cops were called to reports of another woman being attacked.
At his trial he denied rape and assault by beating but was found guilty by the jury after a five-day trial.
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During his first trial, jurors were told Meles spoke hardly any English and prison would be a “burdensome experience” as he was a long way from home.
Meles, of Newport, has now been told he faces a “lengthy custodial” term when is is sentenced in November.
At his first trial in February 2019, he was cleared of rape by convicted of attempted rape after he “took advantage” of the “heavily intoxicated” woman who was unconscious.
Heath Edwards, prosecuting, told the court that on August 13, 2018, the victim had been drinking in Newport’s city centre before she and others had gone to a house party.
He told the jury: “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, through a Tigrinya interpreter, pleaded not guilty to both charges, claiming he didn’t have sex with the woman.
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Judge Christopher Vosper QC told Meles: “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.”