A TOP judge condemned the deportation system, as it emerged that an immigrant who should have been sent home almost 15 years ago, was allowed to stay in the UK to commit a rape and another sex attack.

Lady Justice Hallett said she was “astonished” George Yousaf Dixon, aged 47, had not been sent back to his homeland in Sierra Leone after being handed a 10-year jail term and a recommendation for deportation as long ago as 1990.

Dixon, of Heyside Way, Bury, slipped through the net however and was not deported following his release from jail.

He went on to sexually assault a 20-year-old woman in July 2007 and then to rape another 20-year-old in April 2008.

Dixon was sentenced to indeterminate imprisonment for public protection at Bolton Crown Court on November 14, 2008, having been convicted of rape and sexual assault.

The sentence is almost identical to a life term and Dixon must serve at least five years behind bars before he is considered for parole.

Last week he appealed against that minimum term before at the Criminal Appeal Court.

Lady Justice Hallett said: “He was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for customs and excise irregularities in 1990 and recommended for deportation. He has been brought before the courts several more times since then. I am astonished he is still here now to commit these sexual assaults on these women.

“I wonder what the victims of these two sexual offences would think of the facts of this case?”

Dixon’s lawyers argued the five-year minimum term was too high.

But, refusing his application for permission to appeal, Mr Justice Hickinbottom said: “He stripped and decided to foist himself on each of these ladies sexually.

“In our judgement the sentence is not arguably wrong in principle or manifestly excessive.”