A pedophile migrant who did not tell UK authorities that he was convicted of abusing a five-year-old has been granted the right to appeal his deportation, the Daily Mail reported. An immigration judge has ruled that 29-year-old Eddie Cardoso Ramos committed an “honest error” when he failed to mention his criminal past while applying for leave to remain in the UK.
Ramos was convicted of a serious sexual offense against a five-year-old child in Portugal in 2014, and was given a three-year suspended prison sentence.Ramos moved to the UK in 2018, a year after the end of his suspended sentence. When he applied for leave to remain in 2020, he denied having any previous convictions, and later claimed he thought the form only asked about UK convictions.His conviction came to light in 2024 after he was caught with a prostitute in the UK and received a police warning.
Subsequently, a routine examination revealed his crime in 2014, and the Ministry of Interior began deportation proceedings.Ramos successfully appealed the deportation order, and Judge Paul Lodato concluded that the threat he posed was not a current threat. The judge said: “Does (Ramos) represent a real, present and sufficiently serious threat to the ‘fundamental interest of society’? It was agreed that if I concluded that he did not, his appeal would be dismissed.”
The court heard that Ramos committed the crime in 2012 when he was 19 years old, and was sentenced in 2014. The suspended sentence was not activated because he complied with its requirements. The Home Office said Ramos posed a risk to women and girls in the UK, but the judge found that soliciting a prostitute did not indicate the continuation of the type of crime for which he was convicted in Portugal.Judge Lodato accepted Ramos’ explanation for not disclosing his conviction, saying: “The form asked him: ‘Have you ever been convicted of a criminal offense, or been arrested or charged with a crime for which you are being tried or awaiting trial?’
(Ramos) before answering, “No.” (His interpretation) is that he understood the question to be asking him whether he had been convicted of any criminal offenses in the United Kingdom.
I accept Ramos’ explanation as credible. “I find that he made an honest mistake when he answered the question about his previous convictions and that his failure to disclose the material fact of his 2014 conviction in Portugal was not a breach of trust.”The judge also acknowledged that Ramos’ failure to disclose raised questions about honesty but stressed that it did not indicate a current threat. “Therefore, I do not consider that the failure to disclose his 2014 conviction when he completed his leave to remain in 2020 indicates that (Ramos) represents a present threat,” he said.As a result, Ramos’ appeal will be heard from scratch, giving him the opportunity to fight deportation while he lives in the UK.
