Sex attacker who avoided deportation faces life term

A CONVICTED sex attacker who won a court challenge against his deportation has been warned he could face a life sentence after carrying out a string of rapes.

Jamaican Chan Wright was last month convicted of raping and brutalising three women in a series of assaults in Edinburgh and West Lothian, and other parts of Scotland over a 15-year period.

A judge at the High Court in Edinburgh has now called for a full risk assessment report, which can lead to an Order for Lifelong Restriction (OLR).

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Lord Kinclaven said that once the detailed report was ready defence counsel could address him further on Wright’s case and the Crown call for a deportation recommendation.

An OLR is imposed in the most serious cases of sexual and violent offending, short of murder. A judge sets a minimum period to be served in jail, but any decision to release the prisoner is left to the parole board.

Wright, 39, secured a legal victory four years ago before appeal judges at the Court of Session as he fought efforts to remove him from Britain through the courts.

An immigration tribunal decided the rapist and cocaine trafficker posed a high risk of committing further sex and drugs offences, but Lord Johnston, sitting with Lord Eassie and Lord Wheatley, said its conclusion was “irrational and not justified”.

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The family of one of his victims blasted that decision, adding: “He has cost this country tens of thousands of pounds and he will cost tens of thousands of pounds more because he has got nothing to do with his time.”

He had already served a four-year jail sentence imposed in 1997 for raping a 19-year-old woman at his home in Livingston, and a prison term for being concerned in the supply of the Class A drug. The government originally ordered his removal from the country in 2003, but after fighting the decision Wright remained in Scotland.

He was originally given leave to enter Britain for six months, but was later granted an indefinite stay after marrying.

Wright, who formerly lived in Angus, stood trial at the High Court in Aberdeen earlier this year, where he was convicted of raping and beating a further three women whom he spat on. He had denied a string of charges, claiming that any sex was consensual.

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He did admit biting one woman so hard on the face that she was left with a scar and punching and slapping another.

Lord Kinclaven remanded Wright in custody while the risk assessment report is prepared.