Reform UK and the Conservatives have renewed calls for Britain to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights after a tribunal allowed convicted rapist Hendrix Ekwen to remain in the UK, ruling that he no longer posed a sufficiently serious threat to justify his deportation.
Reform UK and the Conservatives have intensified calls for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) after an immigration tribunal ruled that a man convicted of raping a sleeping woman could remain in Britain. Hendrix Ekwen, 34, an Italian national, took nine years to accept responsibility for what a judge described as an “appalling” attack, having initially tried to shift blame onto his victim. Despite this, Deputy Upper Tribunal Judge Rebecca Pickering ruled last month that Ekwen no longer posed a sufficiently serious threat to the public to justify deportation, allowing his appeal on human rights grounds.
What happened in 2017
The tribunal heard that Ekwen and the victim did not know each other but were both out with mutual friends on the night of the attack, during which drinking was involved. According to Judge Pickering’s account of events, Ekwen and a friend later moved to the victim’s home, where she had consensual sexual intercourse with the friend before falling asleep.
“The victim was awoken by someone having sexual intercourse with her whilst lying behind her,” Judge Pickering said. “She expected it to be [Ekwen’s] friend when in fact it was [Ekwen]. As soon as she realised she demanded [Ekwen] and his friend to get out of her home and reported this to the police.”
Ekwen was found guilty of one count of rape at Newcastle Crown Court in 2020 and jailed for eight years.
A background of prior offending
Ekwen came to the UK in 2009, aged 18, to join his mother and siblings in the North East of England. Between 2012 and 2014, he was involved in five domestic abuse incidents, and in 2015 he received a conditional discharge for possession of cannabis. In 2020, he applied under the European Union Settlement Scheme in an attempt to secure his right to remain in Britain, shortly before his conviction for rape later that same year.
A ‘deeply troubling’ denial of guilt
Even after being convicted at trial, Ekwen “maintained his innocence” and “tried to place responsibility of the rape with the victim,” the tribunal heard. Judge Pickering described this as “deeply troubling,” though she noted that he had since come to accept responsibility through what she called “a slow and gradual process.”
Ekwen first appealed against his deportation at the First-tier Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber, where he claimed to have “learned his lesson,” while simultaneously arguing that his involvement in the offence had been “inadvertent” and that he had “misinterpreted signals from the victim.” Having lost that appeal, he took his case to the Upper Tribunal, where he said he now understood his actions had constituted rape.
The tribunal’s ruling
In allowing Ekwen’s appeal, Judge Pickering pointed to the length of time that had passed since the offence, noting that since 2017 there had been “a substantial period during which reflection, maturation and personal development may occur.” She said Ekwen’s stated desire not to be known as “that kind of person” was evidence of “genuine shame.”
Despite this, Judge Pickering was unambiguous about the seriousness of the crime itself. “[Ekwen’s] conviction for rape is an exceptionally serious matter. I have no hesitation in describing the offending as appalling,” she said in her ruling last month. “The victim was vulnerable by reason of intoxication and because she was asleep… The impact upon the victim was profound.” Despite these findings, she ruled that Ekwen did not pose a sufficiently serious threat to the public to justify his deportation, and allowed his appeal on human rights grounds.
Political reaction
The ruling has prompted strong condemnation from opposition parties. Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “It is utterly repulsive this rapist is allowed to stay in the UK. He, and all other foreign criminals, should be deported. A whole industry of open-border activists and lawyers has sprung up to frustrate the ability to remove such criminals – this needs to be torn down.”
Philp went on to set out the Conservative Party’s position on the ECHR more broadly: “The Conservative Party has a plan to end this so we can deport all foreign criminals. We will leave the ECHR and any other obligation that gets in the way, as well as abolishing the immigration tribunal meaning only the Government will decide who can and cannot stay.”
Reform UK’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf issued a similarly forceful response, saying: “A Reform government will deport this savage rapist. We will leave the ECHR and all foreign treaties that allow activist lawyers and judges to keep monsters like Hendrix in Britain, endangering British women and girls.”
