Post by Focus on Apr 6, 2013 11:55:25 GMT
A foreign criminal who killed her husband in a “gratuitous” attack by repeatedly kicking and stamping on his head has been allowed to remain in Britain because of European Union rules, we can disclose.
In 2011 Rafacz was handed a four year determinate sentence
Mr Justice Blake, Britain’s most senior immigration judge, ruled the Home Office was not entitled to deport Rafacz because her crime did not cross a seriousness threshold set out in EU law.
Under the Union’s free movement rules, the government can only deport EU citizens who have committed crimes in “exceptional circumstances”.
Ministers must show that serious criminals continue to present a “direct threat” - but Mr Justice Blake rejected the Home Office’s claim that Rafacz still poses a danger to the public.
Dominic Raab, the Conservative MP who is campaigning to change the law on foreign criminals, said: “It beggars belief that EU law bars the UK from deporting people convicted of homicide offences, unless the government can somehow prove they are still dangerous.
"Brussels has whittled away our national border controls, undermining public safety and democratic accountability.
“If we can’t renegotiate this kind of issue with Brussels, public trust in the EU will continue to ebb and the clarion calls for Britain to leave will grow louder.”
Rafacz came to Britain in May 2007 and found work in a restaurant. Her husband followed her to Britain 18 months later.
Piotr Rafacz had a serious alcohol problem and when his wife came home from work on July 18, 2009, she found he had failed to look after their young son, who was then aged three, and was heavily drunk.
A court later heard Piotr had gone out during the day leaving the youngster on his own, probably for several hours.
The killer said in a statement to police that she “just lost control”.
Forensic evidence showed her shoes and jeans were splattered with Piotr’s blood and that he died from blunt force trauma to the head, suffering considerable bruising and a broken nose.
Rafacz’s brother Pawel Czop later told detectives that he had seen her kick him in the head at least three times, before they dragged his body from the sitting room of their Belfast flat into the hall.
Detectives changed Rafacz with murder. She denied the charge but at a later court hearing pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Mr Justice Hart, sitting at Belfast Crown Court, found she had not only kicked her husband in the head but stamped on it.
The attack amounted to “gratuitous violence”, said the judge, but he concluded that the death was due to a “momentary loss of self-control by her in a spasm of anger”.
In January 2011 Rafacz was handed a four year determinate sentence - two years’ imprisonment and two years on licence.
While she was in prison, Rafacz’s son was taken to Poland to be cared for by a relative.
In March last year - when the killer had been assessed as posing a “medium risk” of reoffending - the Home Office decided to deport Rafacz for her crime.
The lower immigration tribunal ruled that Rafacz should not be deported because as an EU citizen she was entitled to live in Britain. Under a 2004 EU directive, criminals must present a “genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat” to society in order to be removed.
The court heard that Rafacz had later been assessed as a “low risk” of re-offending but she was “on the high side of the low category”.
Home Secretary, Theresa May
Theresa May, the Home Secretary, appealed against the lower tribunal’s decision in November last year.
She argued that the killer should be deported because of the seriousness of the crime and that the tribunal had been wrong to conclude Rafacz presented a low risk.
But Mr Justice Blake, who earlier this year openly defied Mrs May’s attempt to crack down on foreign criminals’ abuse of human rights, upheld the earlier decision.
The judge said: “There was no basis to conclude that her level of risk that she presented to the United Kingdom and its people was significant or could justify her deportation on the grounds of public policy.
“Her anger was specifically directed at her husband who had badly let her and the family down by his drunken inconsiderate behavior.”
Jean Taylor, founder of Families Fighting for Justice, which campaigns for tougher sentences for murder and manslaughter, said: “Foreign criminals should be deported to their own country if they break the law here.”
Sir Andrew Green, chairman of MigrationWatch UK, said: “This underlines the difficulty which we face increasingly often in removing from Britain EU citizens whom we would much prefer not to have living in our community.”
Rafacz’s legal victory echoes the case of Learco Chindamo, the Italian youth who murdered head teacher Philip Lawrence outside his school hates in 1995.
Chindamo served 14 years of a life sentence and then avoided deportation due to a combination of EU law and his human rights.
Of course they've allowed her to stay -- she's a criminal, foreign and shouldn't be here in the first place - ticks all the f**king crosses!! - Fx
