Post by Focus on Jun 6, 2013 19:05:12 GMT
* 100-strong unit launched to target serious 'criminals from overseas'
* Met say they want to deport the most dangerous criminals from Britain
* Jamaican Lincoln Farquharson thrown out of UK and banned from returning
More than 40 foreign 'predatory rapists' convicted of sex offences abroad have been discovered living in London, Scotland Yard revealed today.
Met commander Steve Rodhouse said his officers were looking at a range of tactics to target them and get them deported.
Today he launched a new 100-strong 'Nexus Unit' to stop 'criminals from overseas' committing crime in the capital.
It came as it was announced a Jamaican man - charged with a string of sexual offences but never convicted - is among a range of foreign nationals booted out of Britain using immigration laws.
Staggering : Scotland Yard has found that there are more than 40 'predatory rapists' living in London who have already been convicted abroad of sex crimes/
Lincoln Farquharson, 46, was removed in a joint operation by the Metropolitan Police and Home Office Immigration Enforcement (HOIE) teams, which aims to remove 2,400 such suspected offenders this year.
Farquharson, who had previously been charged with multiple rapes, was removed on May 26 and is banned from returning to the UK for at least 10 years.
Operation Nexus is in part focused on improving police officers' ability to identify suspects as foreign nationals - who are legally allowed to live in Britain - and subsequently whether they have a criminal background in their country of origin.
Met Commander Steve Rodhouse said 30 per cent of suspected criminals arrested in London were foreign nationals and 20 per cent to 25 per cent of the most serious criminals were from overseas.
'It's not a matter of targeting foreign nationals,' he said.
'It's about our ability to identify someone as a foreign national and to give ourselves a full understanding of where they come from, their background, their criminal history.'
Kicked out : Jamaican Lincoln Farquharson had been charged with multiple rape and has been deported and banned from returning to the UK for at least 10 years
Farquharson, previously a resident of Lewisham, was referred to the Nexus pilot in November 2011 after he was arrested for the suspected rape of a vulnerable woman.
The investigation revealed that he had been charged with four previous rapes of different victims in London but the cases had failed to secure any convictions.
The class-A drug user consequently fell outside of the safeguards of the Registered Sex Offender provisions, Scotland Yard said.
Scotland Yard alleged he evaded justice by selecting vulnerable women, which allowed him to continue assaulting women, in some cases threatening his victims with firearms.
Nexus officers presented an immigration tribunal with an intelligence case to remove him, despite the lack of a UK conviction.
Farquharson was detained under immigration powers and kept in secure accommodation for 16 months while he appealed a decision to remove him.
Mr Justice Blake, the lead judge on the immigration circuit, said: 'We are entirely satisfied that his past treatment of women strongly supports an assessment that he presents a real risk of future harm to women.'
Immigration minister Mark Harper said: 'I've been clear that we will use the full force of immigration powers on those who seek to abuse the system, commit crime and damage our communities.
'The success of this operation proves that foreign nationals who continue to offend and pose a threat to the public will be arrested and removed from the UK.'
[More than 40 foreign 'predatory rapists' convicted of sex offences abroad have been discovered living in London, Scotland Yard revealed today] - Fcking unberrrleeevable!!! - Fx
