World Service editor helped criminals fight deportation

A BBC editor was hired as an expert witness to help at least 15 Somalian criminals fight deportation and remain in the UK, it has emerged.

Mary Harper, the Africa editor for the BBC’S World Service, was last year revealed to have been paid to give expert witness evidence for Yaqub Ahmed, a Somali gang rapist, during his five-year legal battle to remain in the UK. He was deported in November.

However, an investigation by The Mail on Sunday has found that she has also given expert witness evidence in a series of other controversial deportation appeals by Somali offenders. This includes another three sex attackers, three drug dealers and a career criminal who spent a decade in British jails.

In one case, she reportedly cautioned that a criminal’s repeated history of UK offending – 39 convictions for 80 crimes over a period of 17 years – would result in him being shunned by his clan if he returned to Somalia.

In another, it was reported that Ms Harper warned that a 29-year-old Somali man who committed a sexual assault on a deaf 17-year-old girl would be at “severely heightened risk” if he was sent back to Somalia because he had committed a sex crime.

His appeal against deportation was thrown out by a judge who disagreed with her argument.

The newspaper said that 16 months later the attacker, who it is banned from identifying, remains in the UK and has been living in a council flat with his family.

The BBC has since announced Ms Harper was leaving the organisation. It is understood she is leaving later this month. It remains unclear whether she had quit or been sacked.

It comes as a refugee suspected of carrying out a chemical attack that left a mother and child disfigured was twice denied asylum in the UK before being allowed to stay after claiming he had converted to Christianity.

Abdul Ezedi, 35, arrived illegally in the country in the back of a lorry in 2016 and said his life would be in danger if he was returned to his native Afghanistan.

A BBC spokesman said: “While there is nothing in the BBC’S rules that prevent staff acting as expert witnesses, the BBC has clear processes in place to ensure any external work of this nature has prior approval. We are unable to comment on the specific details of this particular case and, more broadly, do not comment on individual staff matters.”

Ms Harper did not respond to a request for comment.