Mentally ill Congolese immigrant with criminal record fractured 86-year-old woman's pelvis in horrific assault after winning deportation case

Judge said Herve Mika, 24, should leave Britain after a 2008 conviction

Mika came to UK at 16 and has a string of convictions for violence and theft

Last July he avoided deportation back to Congo on human rights grounds

8 months later he pushed over pensioner, inflicting 'life-changing injuries'

Mika has now been detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act



Convicted: Herve Mika, 24, avoided deportation on human rights grounds eight months before he attacked a pensioner and broke her pelvis

A violent criminal with a string of convictions fractured an 86-year-old's pelvis eight months after he won a human rights battle to stay in Britain.



A judge said Herve Mika, 24, should have been deported to his native Congo in central Africa, five years before he attacked a vulnerable pensioner in Ipswich, Suffolk, a court has heard.



Mika was convicted of racially or religiously aggravated assault and affray at Coventry Crown Court in 2008, and the judge recommended he serve his sentence before being thrown out of Britain.



However, he successfully appealed against his deportation in July last year, arguing he would not get the medication he needed for his mental illness in the Congo.

In March this year Mika, 24, committed grievous bodily harm on a frail 86-year-old at a Sainsbury's.

The attack has turned his devastated victim's life upside down, Ipswich Crown Court heard.



Mika was trying to flee from staff who suspected him of shoplifting when he pushed the woman to the ground.

Ipswich Crown Court heard yesterday there had been doubts over his mental fitness to enter a plea to GBH after the incident in the town.

But Mika admitted the charge after being ruled fit to do so.

Prosecutor Michael Crimp said he was suspected of shoplifting in Sainsbury's on February 24, but ran off.

He returned to the store on March 5.

Violence: Mika fled from this Sainsbury's in the centre of Ipswich after shoplifting and pushed over a vulnerable 86-year-old

Mika, of no fixed address, tried to escape again when an employee said they wanted to speak to him.

Mr Crimp said he shoved the elderly woman to the ground with 'some force', wrecking her life.

The court was told that Mika was first convicted at Birmingham juvenile court in 2006.

He also has convictions for theft and assault.

Mr Crimp said Mika had also been convicted of battery on two people he had met in the street.

It also emerged that the serial offender was given a 12-month conditional discharge by Norwich magistrates last Friday for assaulting a prison officer.