A Belgian man jailed for his role in a gang killing in Moss Side has avoided deportation following a High Court ruling.
William George, 27, was convicted of manslaughter and jailed for 12 years for his part in what the Court of Appeal described as the ‘horrifying gang murder’ of Abdul Hafidah in 2016. In November 2018 then Home Secretary Sajid Javid ruled that on his release from prison George, who moved to the UK with his family aged eight, should be deported on ‘imperative grounds of public security’.
But George managed to overturn that decision and now the Court of Appeal has rejected efforts by the Home Office to go ahead with the deportation. In a ruling, three judges criticised the Home Office for mistakes in dealing with the case, describing their actions as ‘unimpressive’.
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They added: “It is as important for the Secretary of State to observe procedural rules as it is for claimants. This appeal is based on a misconception about the law which applies in a case like this.” The judges particularly criticised attempts by the Home Office to rely on a legal argument they had earlier abandoned in a lower court.
George was one of 10 men and a teenager sentenced over the May 2016 death of Abdul Hafidah. The 18-year-old was hunted down and viciously killed by members of a rival gang who acted like ‘a pack of animals’ after he strayed into their territory.
Manchester Crown Court heard Abdul – who had a twin sister – was a member of the ‘Rusholme Crips’ street gang. The 11 convicted over his death were members of, or had affiliations with, a rival gang based in Moss Side known as ‘Active Only’, or AO.
Abdul, the court heard, walked into ‘enemy territory’ on Westwood Street in Moss Side and was spotted by members of the AO gang, who chased him before he was knocked down by a Vauxhall Corsa on Moss Lane East then ‘cornered’. The teenager, who was nicknamed Lansky and a boyhood friend of Manchester Arena bomber and mass murderer Salman Abedi, was punched, kicked, stamped on and stabbed in the neck then left for dead in the frenzied attack, which took place during the evening rush hour as onlookers watched in horror.
He died two days later on May 14. The court heard Abdul, who had armed himself with a knife, was suspected of an earlier bat attack on a member of the rival gang and of threatening another just days before his death.
George, the Appeal Court heard, was not armed and ‘did not take part in the final attack’, but ‘acted as a scout’ during the pursuit. He overtook Abdul on a bicycle then confronted him by holding his bike up in front of him.
By doing so George played a ‘vital part’ in helping the chasing pack to catch up with the victim. George, then 21 and of Cowesby Street, Moss Side, was found guilty of manslaughter.
The trial heard ‘limited evidence’ that George was affiliated with a gang, the Appeal Court said. In total the gang were locked up for 168 years over the killing. Seven men were convicted of murder and were jailed for life.
The Appeal Court upheld an earlier ruling that George, a Belgian citizen, did not pose a ‘sufficiently serious risk to public security’ to justify deportation.
The judges wrote: “Nothing in our decision means that we take anything but the most serious view of Mr George’s conduct. But he has been punished for that conduct by the sentence of 12 years’ imprisonment which he received.
“The question in this case is whether, in addition to that punishment, he should be deported to Belgium (where he has not lived since he was eight). The rule under the Regulations is that that depends not, as such, on the seriousness of the offence but on whether he poses a sufficiently serious risk to public security in the future.
“The Judge, after carefully weighing all the evidence, found that he does not. I must say that I find her reasoning convincing; but in any event it contains no error of law.”
A spokesperson for the Home Office told MailOnline: “We are committed to delivering justice for victims and safer streets for our communities. Foreign nationals who commit crime should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced and, where appropriate, we will pursue their deportation.”
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