A migrant paedophile was allowed to enter the UK after it was ruled that stopping him would breach his human rights. Oniel Spence, 43, was previously jailed in the USA for a sexual offence against a 15-year-old girl.
The Jamaican migrant applied to enter the UK in 2023 to join his wife and child, who are British nationals. Although his initial application was blocked by the Home Office, Spence won permission to enter the UK after lodging an appeal. This was despite him previously being sentenced to three years behind bars for a sexual offence against a girl when he was aged 25. Spence served 18 months of the sentence in the US before being deported to Jamaica.
As reported by the Daily Mail, his lawyers argued that preventing him from entering the UK had breached Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The article guarantees the right to respect for an individual’s “private and family life, his home and his correspondence”.
Despite Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary at the time, appealing against the decision, immigration court judges Madeleine Reeds and Nathan Moxon refused her arguments. Current Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood then brought a further case at the Court of Appeal.
Senior judges overturned the original decision earlier this month, calling it “perverse”. It will now be reheard, meaning Spence could still win the case at a future hearing.
Spence was convicted of”‘lewd and lascivious conduct with a victim aged under 16″ in a nightclub in Saint Lucie, Florida, in 2018. Judges in the first appeal found he has been “sexually attracted to children and has pursued relationships with children in the past”.
Spence has never lived in the UK, but his wife and daughter are both British citizens. They have always lived in the UK and maintained contact with the paedophile by telephone and holidays abroad.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “This is yet another deeply perverse example of unelected judges trying to override elected ministers to allow a Jamaican child sex offender into the UK – after the US had rightly kicked him out. The tyranny of the judiciary continues.
“We’ve seen foreign murderers, rapists, drug dealers and paedophiles allowed to stay in the UK by judges using interpretations of the ECHR that defy the will of Parliament and defy common sense.
“That’s why, as I explained this week, we must leave the ECHR, abolish the immigration tribunal and end the power of the courts over immigration. Deciding who gets to enter or remain in the UK should be in the hands of our elected parliament – not unelected judges.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “We will do everything in our power to continue contesting this case. We strongly believe this individual’s presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good.
“We will not allow foreign criminals to exploit our laws. The Home Secretary has been clear that anyone settling in the UK must have a clean criminal record.”