An asylum seeker who was allowed to remain in Britain after an MP campaigned for him to stay is finally facing deportation after being jailed for a sex attack.

Sri Lankan-born Sivarajah Suganthan, 31, was allowed to remain in the UK thanks to a 2011 campaign headed by Lib Dem MP Stephen Williams.

After an 800-signature petition was presented to Parliament calling for a halt to the deportation process, Suganthan - nicknamed Siva - moved in with friends in Bristol.

But three years later the father-of-two "preyed" on a vulnerable 21 year-old who had rejected his advances at a night shelter.

He has been jailed for 30 months and faces having his immigration status reviewed by the Home Office.

A spokesman told the Telegraph it is "determined" to deport any foreign national who has committed a crime in the UK.

Suganthan, who has a previous conviction for shoplifting, sexually assaulted the woman in the early hours of February 2014 as she slept in a shelter.

After initially pleading not guilty at Bristol Crown Court, he confessed to the crime on the day of his trial - but still maintains he "doesn't remember doing it".

Two and a half years after the attack, he has been finally jailed by a judge who criticised the "inexplicable" delay in getting the case to court.