An asylum seeker who avoided deportation after a public campaign headed by an MP is facing jail after admitting sexual assault.

Sri Lankan-born Sivarajah Suganthan spent 37 days in a detention centre before being allowed to remain in the UK thanks to Liberal Democrat Stephen Williams.

Mr Williams lobbied then-immigration minister Damian Green to grant him asylum and presented an 800-name petition to Parliament calling for the deportation threats to end.

Suganthan, 31, went to live with friends in Bristol in 2011, but three years later he sexually abused a 21-year-old woman while staying at a night shelter.