A 51-year-old migrant convicted of raping his wife and sexually assaulting his sister will not be deported from Britain after an immigration tribunal accepted that he could face persecution in Jamaica because he is bisexual.

The man, who says he was a well-known musician and teacher in Jamaica, received prison sentences totalling 18 years. However, his removal was blocked on human rights grounds under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The Home Office issued a deportation order in July 2018. He subsequently claimed asylum, arguing that returning to Jamaica would place him at risk because of his bisexuality.

Officials rejected the asylum application, saying he had been convicted of a “particularly serious offence” and represented a “danger to the community” in the UK.

A First-tier Tribunal initially dismissed his appeal, although the judge accepted that he was bisexual and had been living as a gay man in Britain. The tribunal also concluded that he would likely continue that lifestyle if he returned to Jamaica.

He challenged that ruling at the Upper Tribunal and was successful under Article 3 of the ECHR, which prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment.

An immigration judge said there was “nothing positive to say about his presence in the UK” and accepted that deportation would serve the public interest. However, the judge was required to allow the appeal after finding that the man could face serious harm because of his sexuality.

The Upper Tribunal was also told that he claims to be in a relationship with a younger man who was 20 when the pair became engaged.

He arrived in the UK legally in 2003 and secured a senior teaching position, the tribunal heard. His wife and sister later joined him in Britain.

In 2013, he was convicted at Basildon Combined Court of two counts of raping his wife. He was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to remain on the Sex Offenders Register for life.

The following year, he was found guilty of historical sexual offences, including the attempted rape of a girl under 16, the rape of a woman over 16 and penetrative sexual activity involving an adult relative.

He received a further 13-year sentence at Basildon Crown Court.

During sentencing, the judge described him as “a manipulative bully” who used complaints, threats and the complainant herself as tools of control.

The judge added: “You are a man who’s already been convicted of two counts of rape against your wife, and even that conviction, when it came out, you sought to justify and try to say that it was now subject to appeal: another lie that trips so easily from your tongue.”

The court said it had no doubt that he would continue to minimise his conduct and blame other people for the convictions.

The judge also said he appeared to have manipulated members of his family into disbelieving his sister, a situation that had previously led to his first arrest over the offences against her being dropped.

Article 3 of the ECHR states that “no one shall be subjected to torture”. Because that protection is absolute, the tribunal said the seriousness of the migrant’s criminal convictions could not override the risk assessment in his human rights appeal.

The man has been granted anonymity and is identified in the proceedings only as “OB”.

Upper Tribunal Judge Joanna McWilliam ruled that he faced a real risk of harm if returned to Jamaica because of his sexuality, including the legal and social dangers associated with same-sex relationships there.

She said that although the Home Office said the attitude to homosexual people in Jamaica was improving, this was not the case.

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Judge McWilliam said that the migrant had been called a ‘batty-man’ when he lived in Jamaica and that he had been attacked for being perceived as gay.

He told the tribunal that he was a ‘well-known’ musician and teacher in Jamaica, because he was a head of music at major schools and performed at national and international music festivals.

He said that his family is religious and they have not accepted his sexuality, and they have made ‘threats’ to his life.

Judge McWilliam said that prosecutions for homosexuality are now less frequent, but gay people still suffer from ‘mob violence’ and this would be a risk for the migrant.

She said: ‘On the basis that the [OB] is a bisexual man, I accept that there are aspects of his case which are supported by the background evidence.

‘Moreover, while the [Home Office] says that [OB] has not provided evidence of past persecution, he mentioned past persecution in his asylum interview.

‘He said that he was regularly hit with sticks and was hit with a bottle. He was beaten up when he was aged eighteen by a group of men with weapons.

‘They called him Batty Man. I have considered what [OB] said in the interview in the round.

‘Whilst I have great reservations about much of what [OB] says, considering this evidence in the context of the background evidence as a whole, it is credible that [OB] who has been found to be bi-sexual by the First-tier Tribunal would have been perceived as gay and that as a result he would have been subject to attacks. 

‘I accept that he was attacked, applying the lower standard of proof.’

Judge McWilliam ruled that if the decision had been based on Article 8 of the ECHR, she would not have allowed the appeal decision, saying that Article 3 is an ‘absolute non-derogable right’.

She said: ‘The comments of the sentencing judge about [OB] are illuminating. Having heard him give evidence I reach the same conclusion about his character.

‘In the absence of risk under Article 3, I would have no hesitation in dismissing the appeal under Article 8.

‘The [Offender Assessment System] report presents a negative picture of the [OB] who has at no time accepted responsibility for his heinous crimes.

‘The author of the report states that [OB] portrayed himself as the victim and that he was unable to show remorse. [OB] remains a risk to the public.

‘There is nothing positive to say about the [OB’s] presence in the UK. His philanthropic claims are fictional.

‘He presents a risk to children and young people. Hopefully he will not be placed in a position of trust in the future.

‘[OB’s] deportation is in the public interest and the only rational conclusion that could be reached on the evidence, in the absence of a risk under Article 3, is that any breach of [OB’s] rights under Article 8 would not come close to outweighing the public interest in his deportation.’

A Home Office spokesman said they can’t comment on individual cases, but said: ‘We are reforming our human rights laws to prevent them being abused by foreign criminals with no right to be in the UK.

‘This includes domestic legislation to tighten the application of the European Convention on Human Rights in immigration cases, and working with European partners to ensure it remains fit for modern migration challenges.’

Death row inmate Christa Pike was heard asking whether a burning sensation in her arm was “normal” during a botched execution that medical experts say may have caused brain damage.

The convicted killer remained alive and audibly snoring after receiving two doses of pentobarbital at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville on Wednesday. The incident has been described by experts as the “worst botched execution in the modern era.”

Witnesses in the execution chamber said Pike reported a burning spot in her arm that felt as though it might burst, then asked whether the sensation was normal.

Medical experts are now examining how Pike survived two injections of the lethal drug.

Dr. Joel Zivot, an Emory University School of Medicine professor retained by Pike’s legal team, said the pentobarbital may not have reached her bloodstream in a sufficient concentration to stop her breathing.

“It’s very possible that as a consequence of the delay of the beginning of resuscitation she will have a brain injury,” Zivot told the BBC.

Witnesses said curtains separating Pike from the viewing room closed at 7.46pm and reopened at 7.49pm. During that period, she was reportedly gasping and moaning while kicking at her bedsheet.

“Her mouth fell open a few times, and she began to loudly snore. She gasped a few times,” one witness said.

Pike was still awake and snoring more than 40 minutes after the final dose was given at 8.06pm. Witnesses were ordered to leave the prison at approximately 8.53pm.

Journalists who witnessed the procedure said “nothing we saw was normal,” describing the execution as unusually prolonged.

An Associated Press reporter said Pike “appeared noticeably awake as the execution began.” Other witnesses reported that she sang at one point with her spiritual adviser.

After being secured to the execution gurney, Pike was heard saying: “I’m going to leave this world the way I spent most of my life. And that is with love.”

Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, called the incident unprecedented.

“This event is the worst we’ve seen and unlike any other botched execution in the modern era,” Maher said.

At an August hearing in Knoxville, Pike’s attorneys had argued that her thrombocytosis could increase clotting and pain during the execution.

Her lawyers also warned that Pike’s veins were difficult to access, potentially prolonging the procedure and increasing her suffering.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Pike’s attorneys said: “Tonight, the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution.

“We take no pleasure in being right, but the concerns raised by Ms. Pike proved to be true: difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong, all under a protocol that remains veiled in secrecy.”

The crime shocked the city of Knoxville and drew widespread national attention, in part because a pentagram – a star-shaped emblem linked to Satanism – was carved into Slemmer’s chest, and a portion of her skull was taken as a souvenir of the carnage.

‘Christa is being treated at a nearby hospital,’ her lawyers said. ‘We have not been informed as to her condition.’

It was the second time this year that Tennessee has been unable to carry out an execution. 

In May, state officials called off the lethal injection of Tony Carruthers, who was convicted of kidnapping and killing three people in 1994, after executioners tried and failed for over an hour to place an IV to administer pentobarbital.

Pike had been scheduled to be executed for the brutal 1995 murder of Slemmer and would have been the first woman executed in the state of Tennessee in more than 200 years.

But the procedure was delayed for hours after the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued an order staying Pike’s execution ‘until further order of this court.’ 

The US Supreme Court overturned the order just before 6pm local time, clearing the way for Pike’s execution.

Following the botched execution, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said in a statement that he has ordered a ‘comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred’ and that the remaining scheduled execution will not take place this year. 

‘Carrying out a lawfully imposed sentence is among the State’s most serious responsibilities, and the people of Tennessee expect it to be done in a manner that is not only legal and constitutional, but is effective,’ he said.

The Tennessee Department of Correction said in a statement that they ‘followed every step of the State’s lawful, established execution protocol approved by the Attorney General’s Office.’

The state’s execution protocol calls for a secondary set of drug syringes to be administered ‘if the inmate is not deceased’ after the first set. It does not spell out what happens if the subject is alive after the second set.

Maher added that what Pike experienced is ‘singular and unparalleled’, noting that seven other people have survived medical problems due to an execution team’s failure to access a vein to administer lethal injection drugs, but no one has stayed alive after receiving the drugs used in such an execution. 

The mishap was just the latest in a string of events that delayed the enactment of her death sentence, which was originally scheduled for 10am on Wednesday

But it wasn’t until 7.26pm that the curtains into the execution chamber opened and Pike and her spiritual advisor were seen singing a song before the killer made her final remarks, media witnesses have described.

By 7.46pm prison officials closed the curtain to the media room. They then raised the curtain again three minutes later. At that time, Pike could be heard loudly snoring, and the curtain was closed again at 8.06pm.

Pike continued to be heard snoring behind the closed curtain until the microphone was cut off at about 8.53pm. At that time, there was an announcement to escort media witnesses out of the area.

‘We have a lot of questions,’ one reporter said at an ensuing news conference. ‘And the [Tennessee Department of Corrections] has a lot of answers it needs to provide the public.’

Tori Gessner, a reporter at WKRN who has witnessed several executions, also emphasised: ‘Nothing about today was normal, typical, at all.’

Attorney Amy Harwell has since driven an emergency motion to the Tennessee Supreme Court.

‘Ms Pike has not lost consciousness and still has a heartbeat and is audibly snoring,’ the attorneys wrote in the motion filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

Another emergency motion was filed with the US Supreme Court, seeking to immediately halt and stay the execution. Lawyers claimed in that filing that Pike was in ‘unnecessary agony,’ and the botched execution constituted cruel and unusual punishment.

The motion further asserted that the Department of Correction should begin lifesaving measures.

‘Failure to provide such care constitutes deliberate indifference to legitimate, serious medical needs,’ her lawyers asserted.

Federal Judge Clifton L. Corker has since declared that ‘medical personnel have begun to administer medical care as requested in the motion.’

Pike’s attorneys had previously asked for an all-female firing squad to kill her or to be hanged, the New York Post reported.

Having Pike be restrained and handled by men could retraumatize her because of past sexual abuse, her lawyers had claimed, noting that she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

‘[Lethal injection administered by men] will increase the likelihood that an Eighth Amendment violation will occur,’ Ferrell said.

‘There is an increased risk of pain and suffering.’

According to the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide, Pike was a victim of child sexual abuse, multiple rapes and attempted suicide at age 12.

When she was 17, she was allegedly grabbed by a stranger by the side of the road and raped. Police never arrested a suspect.

She killed Colleen Slemmer almost one year to the day after the alleged rape.

She was convicted at the age of 18 in March 1996 for brutally stabbing and beating Knoxville Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer to death. 

Her boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, and an accomplice, Shadolla Peterson, also helped lure Slemmer to a wooded area before the couple tortured her to death.

The pair carved a pentagram into the teen’s chest, and Peterson testified that she saw Pike also carve something into Slemmer’s head, police evidence showed.

Pike also took a piece of her skull as a souvenir, according to investigators.

Slemmer attempted to run for her life, but the couple captured her again and continued the gruesome torture that lasted about 30 minutes to an hour, Pike estimated.

Pike and Shipp were both found guilty of first-degree murder. She was sentenced to death, and he received a life sentence with the possibility of parole.

Peterson, then 18, served as a lookout for the couple during the deadly attack and was granted probation in exchange for her cooperation.

Pike has not denied her guilt, but her attorneys and supporters argued that a death sentence is not appropriate for a crime committed at that age by a teenager with untreated mental illness after a childhood of brutal sexual abuse and neglect.

In a clemency petition, the lawyers argued that Pike’s untreated mental illness and background made her unable to ‘put the brakes on.’ She had told police that she initially only wanted to fight Slemmer but ended up killing her in the frenzied attack.

‘I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realise the gravity of what I’d done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone’s child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime,’ Pike said in a statement included in her clemency petition.

Assistant federal defender Stephen Ferrell further argued that more is known today about adolescent brain development and that Pike’s death sentence is an outlier.

Still, Governor Lee said he decided not to intervene in the case ‘after deliberate consideration of Christa Gail Pike’s request for clemency and after a thorough review of the case.’

Following the ruling, Pike refused to select a last meal, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction.

Inmates are typically given $20 to spend on their last meal, according to The Tennessean. The state still planned to provide Pike with a meal before the procedure.

During Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Inside Politics,” CNN Senior National Correspondent Kyung Lah said California’s high cost of living could follow Gov. Gavin Newsom as he pursues higher office.

Lah highlighted the experience of Tom Sopit, who was forced to shut down his restaurant. Sopit attributed the closure to a combination of challenges at the state, federal and municipal levels.

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After the report, Lah explained that California’s affordability crisis extends well beyond the cost of groceries or gasoline, which is the highest in the nation. She pointed to broader financial pressures, including insurance, child care, business fees and regulations that make construction more difficult. “All of it is just crushing,” Lah said, adding that Sopit was not trying to become wealthy—he spent a full year attempting simply to break even but ultimately had to close the business.

Lah added that Democratic candidates should pay close attention to the frustrations of younger generations who fear they cannot achieve the same level of stability as their parents. Sopit’s immigrant parents operated a restaurant in Los Angeles, but he was unable to maintain a similar business. That generational divide, Lah said, could pose a political challenge for those candidates—and particularly for Newsom as he seeks higher office.