A foreign criminal jailed for a serious sex offence against a schoolgirl has won the right to damages after the Court of Appeal ruled he was held in custody awaiting deportation for too long.

Jumaa Kater Saleh, 25, formerly of Lowfield Street in Dartford, was part of a group of five men who lured under-age girls to a house for sex.

Saleh comes from the Darfur area of Sudan and was held for just over two years while the Home Secretary attempted to deport him after he completed his four-year criminal sentence in a young offenders' institution.

But the appeal judges have now ruled that eight months of his detention was "unreasonable and unlawful" and he was entitled to damages because of Home Office administrative delays.

It was eventually decided he could not be deported on human rights grounds.

The ruling follows Saleh's case at Maidstone Crown Court in 2008, when he was one of five refugees convicted and jailed for sex offences.

The men preyed on young schoolgirls across Gravesend and Dartford for sexual gratification, the court heard.

Recommending deportation, the judge told Mahder Zeregergis, Juma Saleh, Adil Aboulkadir, Mohamud Jimale and Dawt Kefle that they had abused the hospitality of this country.

Saleh, then 19, was locked up for four years, less a year spent on remand, on two charges of sexual activity with a child.

The court heard the five targeted vulnerable young girls and lured them to addresses in Dartford, Gravesend and Crayford.

The prosecution said the victims were "entrapped and exploited".

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