An asylum seeker who avoided deportation back to Sri Lanka from the UK after a public campaign, was 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.

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

(The Sun)