AN illegal immigrant was freed from prison to carry out a sex attack on a vulnerable child because the Home Office failed to deport him.
Indian national Sam Sharma drugged the 14-year-old child before sexually abusing her more than a year after he completed a prison sentence for police assault.
Failed asylum seeker Sharma, 34, was allowed to roam free on Scotland’s streets when the authorities could have deported him “if they wanted to.”
Perth Sheriff Court was told Sharma avoided being sent home because the Home Office “probably just didn’t get round to it.”
Sheriff Alison McKay has now jailed him for three years after a jury found him guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting a child in Dundee on May 26 last year.
She said: “If he doesn’t have a UK passport and it is correct that he has claimed asylum and been refused then Mr Sharma will be known. They can already deport Mr Sharma if they want to.
“I take the view that you are already within the sights of the Home Office and they will decide whether or not you will be deported.”
Counsel Neil Beardmore, defending, told the court: “There was a history of him making applications and those being refused. He originates from India.
“He does not have a UK passport. He has claimed asylum and is a failed asylum seeker. You would expect them to deport him at the conclusion of his sentence.
“You have to ask why – after his last imprisonment – the Home Office didn’t deal with it? They probably just didn’t get round to it.”
Former shop assistant Sharma sexually abused the underage girl in Dundee after supplying her with cannabis. He was also found guilty of supplying cannabis.
Jurors convicted Sharma of sexually abusing the girl, then aged 14, during May 2023 at an address in Dundee.
He was also found guilty of being concerned in the supply of cannabis to the girl and another woman on the same date.
Sharma, who had been working at a convenience store in Monifieth, was subject to three bail orders at the time of the offence.
A not proven verdict was returned on a charge of sexually assaulting another woman while she was asleep.
Sheriff McKay said: “In relation to the sexual conduct towards the girl, I take the view she was a particularly vulnerable young person.”
As well as sending Sharma to prison for 36 months, she added his details to the Sex Offenders Register for life.
The Home Office was approached for comment.
