A sex-for-asylum scandal at Britain's largest immigration processing center has been uncovered

Jamie Doward:

Evidence obtained by this newspaper reveals how a chief immigration officer at Lunar House in Croydon, south London, targeted an 18-year-old Zimbabwean rape victim over a two-week period in which he offered to help her with her application to claim asylum in the UK and made it clear that he would like to have sex with her.

Last night the Home Office announced it had suspended an official at the centre following The Observer's allegations and said it was launching a full investigation.

The exposé is the latest in an increasingly long line of scandals to hit the embattled Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) and comes just two months after an official report urged an overhaul of practices at the centre to prevent such abuses taking place.

James Dawute, 53, picked the teenager called Tanya (her surname has been withheld at her request) out of a queue of asylum seekers and asked for her telephone number, promising to help her with her application.

Through subsequent text messages and mobile phone calls Dawute made it clear he was attracted to the teenager and requested her bank details so that he could put money into her account. He then encouraged her to return to Croydon to meet him last Wednesday.

During the subsequent 90-minute meeting with the asylum seeker, in which she discussed having sex with Dawute in return for his help, he claimed he knew 'how to win her case'. When asked for guarantees that he could help her, he tells her to come to a hotel with him. 'I will tell you when we are alone because you are going to have sex,' he said.

Dawute: 'I'm going to make love to you'

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