A Nigerian national convicted of raping a teenage woman in Wales last year had successfully blocked his own deportation from the UK following an earlier conviction for a violent offence — after a tribunal ruled that removing him would breach his human rights.
Gift Oladele, 24, was found guilty last week of raping a 19-year-old woman in woodland near Wrexham in September last year. It has since emerged that the Home Office had attempted to deport him in 2023 following a previous conviction, but was overruled by an asylum and immigration tribunal.
Oladele had been sentenced to two years in prison in December 2022 for falsely imprisoning a woman in Manchester in a broad daylight attack described by the sentencing judge as sexually motivated. At that hearing, Judge Conrad KC described him as “clever, devious and manipulative” with “inappropriate attitudes towards women and a sense of entitlement,” adding that there was “ample material” to find him a dangerous offender.
The Home Office issued a deportation order on 10 January 2023. Oladele appealed, arguing the order breached his rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to private and family life. A hearing took place on 15 December 2023 before Tribunal Judge James A Simpson. No Home Office representative attended, though the judge proceeded on the basis that the department’s position had been set out in writing.
Oladele told the tribunal he had been working hard since his release, had stopped taking drugs and had been in a relationship for two years with a Congolese woman who held indefinite leave to remain in the UK. His partner told the court she would not follow him to Nigeria if he were deported. His mother stated he had never visited Nigeria, knew nobody there, and that all his family connections were in the UK.
Judge Simpson found Oladele to be “socially and culturally integrated” in the UK, noting he had attended school and college here and that “the only thing that distinguishes him from any other resident of Manchester is his precarious immigration status and the fact that he has been found guilty of a serious criminal offence.” A probation officer’s letter submitted to the tribunal assessed him as presenting a “low risk of reconviction” at that time.
The judge acknowledged the balance was “finely balanced” and that there was “a strong public interest in deporting and excluding foreign criminals.” However, he ultimately concluded that the combination of factors — including Oladele’s lack of ties to Nigeria, his private and family life in the UK, and his apparent engagement with rehabilitation — was “just sufficiently compelling” to outweigh the case for deportation. The order was overturned.
Less than a year later, Oladele raped a teenager in woodland near Wrexham.
The Home Office described the case as “absolutely horrific,” confirming that Oladele had successfully appealed the deportation order following his first offence before going on to commit the rape. Oladele is now facing sentencing following last week’s conviction.
