Somali criminal Abdulrahman Mohammed will get £80,000 from the British taxpayer after a judge ruled he was unlawfully detained after authorities failed to deport him

A violent Somali criminal with 30 convictions to his name has won almost £80,000 compensation from the government after he was locked up for too long.

Abdulrahman Mohammed, 39, has been jailed more than a dozen times for crimes including affray, knife possession and multiple assaults and robberies.

But a judge has now ruled that the Home Office kept him in prison for 445 days too long whilst trying to deport him.

Despite describing him as 'a prolific and violent offender', Judge Edward Pepperall QC awarded him £78,500 in compensation.

In a description described as 'ironic understatement' in court, Mohammed's own lawyer had said 'he might not be considered an asset to society'

The judge said: 'I can well understand why the Home Secretary might wish to deport him.'

But Judge Pepperall ruled that Mohammed had been 'falsely imprisoned' and was 'entitled to justice in a civilised society'.

The European Court of Human Rights had ordered that he stay in Britain despite the government's attempts to deport him and it has now been ruled he was unlawfully detained while authorities worked out how to handle his case.

The three periods of unlawful detention are believed to have come after lawful prison terms, following which the Home Office kept him in while his deportation was considered.

The court heard Mohammed became a 'habitual and violent criminal' after coming to the UK

Mohammed suffered torture and 'unimaginable barbarity' when he was 13 and living with his family in Mogadishu, the court heard.

His uncle was shot dead and a girl was raped in front of him, before thugs sliced through his cheeks with bayonets in a bid to cut out his tongue.

He was then 'branded with a burning cattle prod' before his torturers told him, 'remember us by this'.

After he managed to flee Somalia, he spent two years in a refugee camp before finally making his way to Britain in 1996, aged 17.

The court heard he had been left with post traumatic stress by his youth in Somalia.

But after getting into Britain, he embarked upon a life as 'a habitual and violent criminal', the court heard.

Judge Edward Pepperall said he understood the Home Office wanted rid of Mohammed, but it had no reason to detain him

The judge listed a total of 30 convictions on his record between 1998 and 2013, for which he served 13 custodial sentences.

He later said in a statement: 'I was a young boy in a new country with freedoms and a culture unlike anything I had ever experienced before. I was drawn to so many things which were not good for me and I did not know how to stop or impose any limits on myself.'

After being refused asylum on entering Britain, he had been granted leave to remain - but only until August 2000.

In January 2008, the Home Secretary decided enough was enough and made a deportation order against him.

But lawyers took his case to the European Court of Human Rights and the UK was ordered not to remove him from the country 'until further notice'.

There was no prospect of deporting him, but he was kept in immigration detention for three periods between 2012 and 2016.

Labour's Jacqui Smith was Home Secretary when deportation proceedings began. Theresa May was in charge of the Home Office when Mohammed was unlawfully detained

Home Office lawyers accepted at a late stage in the case that he had been unlawfully detained for 445 days in total, the judge said.

Judge Pepparall said there was 'clear independent evidence' that Mohammed had been tortured and Government officials had not 'seriously engaged' with his rights.

'The Home Office's own policy required it to release Mr Mohammed unless there were exceptional circumstances justifying continued detention.

'As the Home Office now concedes, there weren't', the judge said.

He added: 'Mr Mohammed is prolific and violent offender. I can well understand why the Home Secretary might wish to deport him.

'She has not, however, been able to do so, largely because of the very real risk that deportation to Somalia would pose.'

It is believed Mohammed was kept in immigration detention centres (like that pictured) while his deportation was considered. File photo

The judge concluded: 'Some reading this judgment might well question why a foreign citizen who has so thoroughly abused the hospitality of this country by the commission of serious criminal offences is entitled to any compensation.

'But there are few principles more important in a civilised society than that no one should be deprived of their liberty without lawful authority.

'Justice should be done to all people.

'He is not the most wicked of men, but his presence in the UK is not conducive to public good. Nevertheless, in a civilised society, he is entitled to justice.

'Specifically, he is entitled not to be falsely imprisoned and... he is now entitled to the compensation that I have awarded.'