An asylum seeker who avoided deportation back to Sri Lanka after an MP led a public campaign was today facing jail after admitting sexual assault.
Sivarajah Suganthan, who spent 37 days in a detention centre , was allowed to remain in the UK back in 2011 thanks to 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.
Anjali Gohil, defending, said the guilty plea was on a full facts basis.
Record Peter Towler ordered a pre-sentence report and adjourned the case for sentence on September 14. He told Suganthan: “I won’t be the sentencing judge. I would have thought a custodial sentence is inevitable.”
