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A rapist who escaped deportation to Somalia thanks to a revolt by plane passengers says he is too depressed to go back.

Yaqub Ahmed, 30, was on a flight from Heathrow to Somalia via Turkey last October, but was escorted off when other passengers noisily protested for his freedom.

Unaware Ahmed was convicted of gang-raping a 16-year-old girl, one passenger shouted: “Take him off the plane!”

The hapless activists thought he was an innocent refugee and demanded his release, with another one heard yelling officials were “separating him from his family”.

The Home Office team escorting him were forced to remove him from the plane.

Ahmed was seen thanking passengers for their support as they cheered and clapped.

It was initially reported he would be deported via a private plane at a later date, but the rapist is appealing on grounds of "mental trauma”, Mail on Sunday reports.

His barrister Mark Allison revealed at Ahmed’s bail tribunal the convict was applying for a judicial review of his case.

He said Ahmed had told a psychiatrist, Dr Nuwan Galappathie, that he was suffering from “mental trauma”.

Dr Galappathie filed a report which Home Office lawyer Matthew Williams said “is being treated as a request to revoke the deportation order”, the title reported.

(Image: MET POLICE)

The bail tribunal heard Ahmed had tried to take his life on more than one occasion.

Dr Galappathie reportedly assessed that Ahmed had a “depressive disorder” and “post-traumatic stress disorder”.

Ahmed’s furious rape victim, now 27, said she has fought post-traumatic stress disorder triggered by the vicious rape.

She said: “‘It’s ridiculous – his mental health is being put above mine.

“It’s absolutely disgusting and I’m appalled that he is using this excuse to try and avoid deportation.

“I’ve been told that I would benefit from seeing a specialist but I can’t privately fund treatment and the NHS doesn’t have the resources available that I need.

“I am currently without any mental health support, yet he has been assessed by a specialist psychiatrist.

"He thinks things have been tough.

“Well he should have lived my life these last few years.”

Ahmed and three other men gang-raped the girl after a night out in London’s Leicester Square in 2007.

They all denied rape but were found guilty at Wood Green Crown Court — with each jailed for nine years.

Ahmed is believed to have served four years in jail.