'What about my family rights?' Father's despair as appeal court refuses to deport failed asylum seeker who killed his daughter - 9th Apr 2011

A father made an impassioned plea for justice yesterday after a last-ditch attempt to deport his daughter’s killer ended in failure.

Paul Houston’s 12-year-old daughter Amy was knocked down and left to die trapped under the car driven by illegal immigrant Aso Mohammed Ibrahim.

But the Court of Appeal dismissed an attempt to overturn two earlier decisions allowing Ibrahim, 33, to stay in Britain because of his ‘right to a family life’.

As the judges announced their verdict, a clearly distressed Mr Houston shouted across the court: ‘My Lords, what about my right to a family? Amy was my child.’

Later, he told the Daily Mail: ‘I had to say something, even if they didn’t reply. Amy was my world, my only child and she had such a bright future.

‘By allowing him to stay, we are rewarding him for his criminal action. He claims that to be sent home would take away his right to family life. But what about mine? What about Amy’s right to life?’

Mr Houston, 41, an engineer from Darwen, Lancashire, has battled for nearly eight years for Ibrahim – who was driving while disqualified and without insurance – to be thrown out of Britain.

The failed asylum-seeker served four months in prison but launched legal action to stay in the UK.

He claimed sending him home to Iraq would breach his right to a ‘private and family life’ under the Human Rights Act as he had fathered two children here. Read More