Drug dealer who shot at PC saved from deportation
A JAMAICAN drug dealer who tried to murder a policeman was one of 23 serious criminals to avoid deportation after 11th-hour legal challenges.
Michael Mitchell, 44, was sentenced to 25 years in jail after firing a gun from point-blank range at PC Shaun Callow, who had been pursuing him on foot.
The officer, who was not hit by the bullet, kept chasing Mitchell and later arrested him after a violent struggle. PC Callow was nominated for a bravery award for his actions in 2008 and heralded by the then chief of the Metropolitan
Police, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe.
Mitchell, who was due to be deported to Jamaica in the early hours of Wednesday after serving half his sentence, was given a lastminute reprieve following a legal challenge along with 22 other serious criminals. They included two rapists, Conrod Bryce and Jermaine Stewart, as well as murderer Michael Antonio White.
The debacle came after 60 MPs, mainly from the Labour benches, wrote to Home Secretary Priti Patel asking for the deportation flight to be cancelled.
Former model Naomi Campbell, Line Of Duty star Thandie Newton and James Bond actress Naomie Harris signed an open letter calling on travel firms not to operate such flights.
Meanwhile, legal teams representing the crooks began issuing last-ditch appeals – including for human rights and claims the criminals were victims of modern slavery – to allow them to stay in Britain. Government officials have told of their fury over the opportunistic tactics used by immigration lawyers to halt the removal of the criminals.
They pointed to comments made last month by Lord Burnett, the Lord Chief Justice, who said: ‘It is a matter of regret that a minority of lawyers have lent their professional weight and support to vexatious representations and abusive late legal challenges.’
A Home Office source said: ‘This is the issue the Home Secretary is most exercised about at the moment. She is absolutely furious and wants these foreign offenders to be removed from the country.’
It can also be revealed that rapist Bryce, 43, from Romford, East London, sentenced to ten years, was due to be deported until lawyers won a last-minute appeal.
Another rapist, Stewart, a 37-yearold from Liverpool given six years behind bars for raping a woman on his sofa, was also reprieved.
While Antonio White, now in his 50s, was also removed from the flight having been jailed in 2003 for 18 years on charges of murder and attempted murder after he shot his victim Sean Black six times in a drug deal that went wrong.
Lawyers for offenders removed from the flights have been criticised for posting celebratory messages on social media. Solicitor Amer Zaman, who tweeted the words ‘what a result’ after his unnamed client was removed from the plane, said: ‘My client was a non-violent offender and nor was he convicted of any sexual crimes.’
Among the 13 criminals successfully deported were 51-year-old Gary Fitzroy James, a serial London-based crook who was sentenced to 26 years behind bars in 2007 for attempted murder.
Thirty charter flights of foreign offenders have taken place this year while another flight to Jamaica in February sparked outrage when criminals, including rapists, were given a last-minute reprieve.