A homeless man who became a media darling over Christmas when he blamed Brexit for his predicament and earned Jeremy Corbyn’s sympathy is a sex offender who tried to rape an 87-year-old widow, according to reports.

“Steven Rowe” was introduced to the public as a homeless veteran by publicly-owned broadcaster Channel 4, complaining that the Government “are more concerned about this Europe business and this Brexit business than they are their own people,” and accusing them of having “forgotten their own”.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was quick to jump on the viral video, tweeting: “Time and again this Government fails those who have given so much to our country.”

There is help for homeless veterans in the UK. I understand some avenues have been cut off to Mr Rowe because he is on the sex offenders register, guilty of the attempted rape of an 87 year-old woman. https://t.co/NT3cGjtmEk https://t.co/p73RhaI2Eu — Peter A Smith (@PeterAdamSmith) December 28, 2018

Mr Rowe told Channel 4 he was sleeping rough because he did not meet “the criteria” for assistance, but was unclear on what exactly he meant by this — and the broadcaster did not press him for more information.

It has now been revealed that he is a registered sex offender who was convicted for attempting to rape an 87-year-old widow under the name “Stephen Rowe”.

“[The victim] found it in her heart to forgive you but I don’t,” said sentencing judge Michael Heath at the time.

“You are 5-foot 11-inches tall and weighed between 16 and 17 stone. Your victim was an 87-year-old widow, frail and vulnerable who lived alone,” the judge added severely — although in the end he only handed down a short 8-year sentence.

Homeless Illegal Migrant Paedophile Championed by Corbyn Died from Spice Abuse https://t.co/iAL4jammmm — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 14, 2018

The situation echoes the case of Marcos Amaral Gourgel, a homeless man who died in an underpass a short distance from Parliament in early 2018 and was hailed as by Mr Corbyn and the mainstream media as a symbol of Tory heartlessness and the British state’s failure to care for society’s most vulnerable people.

Only later did is transpire that Mr Gourgel was actually an illegal migrant paedophile who had already been deported once, and was suffering from the effects of drug abuse at the time of his death.

Follow Jack Montgomery on Twitter: @JackBMontgomery