"I slept with a sex worker who demanded more money than we agreed. I am not a rapist"

'Men of Dartmoor E-Wing, Christmas 2019' by Sean Bw Parker

The alleged offence

Towards the end of February 2009, in a pub in James Street, Liverpool, I became involved with a sex worker from Zimbabwe from a different tribe from me.

Together we went to a local off-licence, bought alcohol and returned to her flat where we had consensual sex.

She then demanded more money than we had agreed. She wanted £300, having agreed on £30 upfront, two packets of cigarette, eight cans of beer and some marijuana.

I contested the amount, and left her flat, she subsequently returned to the off licence and claimed to have been raped by me. Ali, the off-licence shop owner, a then - friend of mine told me that the police were looking for me and he gave me their contact details.

I then went to my local police station (Wavertree) to find out what was going on and sort it out, but was directed to another police station where I was told to wait for over 2 hours. The police believed my story and released me on bail immediately.

Evidence that the allegation was false

I attended the Liverpool Crown court in June 2009, the prosecution and the police built their case on contradictions and deliberately - systematically withheld (CCTV) footage evidence that could have cleared me.

If the truth had been presented, I never would have spent time behind bars and be in the predicament I am.

I believe that I was poorly represented by the court appointed legal aid solicitor/barrister, who from the word go tried to persuade me to plead guilty. I was falsely charged with rape, wrongly convicted, sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and placed on a the Sex Offender Register for life.

How the false allegation is affecting my life

I served 5 years in prison and should have been released to serve the rest of my sentence in the community on probation license, but the prison governor informed me that the Home Office had signed a deportation order and revoked my Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) in the UK. I was kept in prison and told that I would be transferred to an immigration detention centre when the space becomes available.

Then, I was subsequently transferred to Morton Hall Detention Centre in 2015 and then to another detention centre, The Vene in Portland, where I remained until March 2016.

I was released on both probation licence and immigration bail conditions of a convicted paedophile/terrorist (electronic tag and curfew at the same time), which was supposed to have finished in June 2019. However, the Home Office ordered that the tag and curfew remain, claiming that I am a foreign national convicted criminal who has been liable for deportation since my conviction in 2014.

Since my conviction in 2014 my life has been in limbo. I life on tag with a curfew. I am on the Sex Offender Register for life. I am not permitted to study or work and I am denied access to public funds.

In 2020, my wife Soneni and I formally married, but I am not permitted to remain in the same building as my now 17 year old daughter for more than 12 hours.

Subsequently, in April 2023 we lost our second child through a miscarriage, which we attribute to psychological stress caused by the curfew and tag demanded by the Home Office.

I can no longer go on holiday or abroad to Africa to attend family cultural activities like funerals, tombstones unveiling, weddings and festivals. I currently suffer social isolation and loneliness due to the curfew and having to stay at home for most of the time. And, each evening my wife or I has to leave the family home to stay somewhere else.

I am required to sign on at the Home Office reporting centre every two weeks . I am on location surveillance 24/7 and have to log in when contacted by my fingerprint up to 6 or more times a day.

Home Office records confirm that I am a medically vulnerable victim of torture by the Zimbabwean government. In October 2000, I was deliberately injected with HIV contaminated blood during torture and have been diagnosed with PTSD - Mental Health, type 2 diabetes, asthma, HIV and depression and has been prescribed multiple medications.

Furthermore the Home Office more than twice (2019 - 2023) deliberately denied me the right to medical treatment by refusing to remove the electronic tag so my doctors could perform an MRI Scan.

Conclusion

I was falsely accused and wrongly convicted of a rape that did not occur and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, but I am totally innocent.

This started a chain of events that sees me fighting to remain in the UK with my wife and daughter and living on a tag and curfew conditions that have ruined all aspects of my life and my family's lives, too.

I argue that the failure of the Home Office to acknowledge my false allegation and wrongful conviction means that they have breached my rights under Directive 2004/38/EC (the Directive) and the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006 (EEA Regulations 2006). They are also breaching my rights under Article 8 ECHR.

By Victor Nkomo

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