THE sentencing of an asylum seeker who admitted to raping a 15-year-old girl has been delayed.

Anicet Mayela, 40, was due to be sentenced at Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday (May 14) charged with one count of raping a young girl.

It was heard that Mayela, of Desborough Crescent, Oxford, raped a girl between December 1 and December 31 last year.

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However, the case has been delayed until May 29.

Mayela, who was once campaigning outside a detention centre holding a sign stating: “Migrants are not criminals”, is currently remanded in custody while awaiting sentencing.

The defendant has been fighting for his return to the Republic of the Congo after arriving in the UK in 2004, claiming ‘his life was at risk’.

An attempt was made to deport him but he was allegedly injured in an isolation cell near Heathrow Airport so was then held at Campsfield House Detention Centre in Kidlington.

A second attempt was made in May 2005 but it is alleged air crew staff prevented the plane from taking off.

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Mayela, a former economics student, then won his leave to remain after lawyers said that deportation would be against his human rights.

He then began his campaign for anti-deportation before the attack on the young girl in 2023.

It is unknown whether the sentencing will impact his status.