An Iraqi illegal immigrant charged with raping a teenager has gone missing after a British judge granted him bail

Paul Bull:

Judge John Wait's decision to allow Souny Mustafa back into the community, even though the Iraqi was in the country illegally when he is alleged to have carried out the attack, has been condemned by local politicians.

Mustafa (31), whose appeal for asylum was rejected in July 2004, was charged with raping an 18-year-old in the Pear Tree area of the city in April last year.

He was originally remanded in custody but a court official has confirmed that, in a behind-closed- doors hearing with Judge Wait, Mustafa was bailed.

Bail was granted on condition that he lived at an address in Doncaster and reported twice a week to his local police station.

Police have confirmed Mustafa last signed in with them on January 5 and has not been seen since.

Mustafa - full name Souny Ibrahim Mohammed Mustafa - is charged with attacking the teenager behind a block of flats in Harrington Street on April 27.

It is understood that prior to his hearing in front of Judge Wait, on December 23, previous applications for bail had been refused.

The Iraqi's details have been circulated on the national police computer.

Richard Smalley, deputy leader of the Derby's Conservatives, said: "It makes a mockery of the judicial system and the Government's asylum-seeker policy.

"I'm surprised that if the judge had been informed of the guy's immigration status and could not detain him under criminal law that the Immigration Service wasn't on hand to detain him under its own rules."

Derby North MP Bob Laxton said: "The original decision made to hold him was the correct one - clearly that should have been continued."

Judge Wait was unavailable for comment.

The Mustafa case comes days after it was revealed that asylum seeker Aram Ali had attacked two women after remaining in the country illegally.

Ali and two other Iraqis, whose applications for asylum had all been rejected, were sentenced to nine years each for the gang rape, last April, of a Derby prostitute.

Through DNA evidence, police were able to link Ali to the attempted rape of an 18-year-old girl in Stockton, near Middlesbrough, in November 2004.

VANISHING ACT WAS SO PREDICTABLE