Abdulrahman Mohammed v The Home Office
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Mr Edward Pepperall |
| Judgment Date | 08 November 2017 |
| Neutral Citation | [2017] EWHC 2809 (QB) |
| Docket Number | Case No: HQ16X01806 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
| Date | 08 November 2017 |
[2017] EWHC 2809 (QB)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Mr Edward Pepperall QC
SITTING AS A DEPUTY HIGH COURT JUDGE
Case No: HQ16X01806
Mr Chris Buttler (instructed by Leigh Day) for the Claimant
Mr Benjamin Tankel (instructed by the Government Legal Department) for the Defendant
Hearing dates: 7 & 8 November 2017
Mr Edward Pepperall QC:
Abdulrahman Mohammed is a 39-year-old Somali citizen. He came to the UK on 2 February 1996 at the age of 17. He has spent much of the last two decades in and out of custody, largely for serious criminal offences but he has also been detained by the Home Office pursuant to its powers to order the detention of foreign criminals who are liable to deportation.
By this action, Mr Mohammed complains that three periods of immigration detention, totalling some 445 days, were unlawful:
2.1 41 days from 12 September to 22 October 2012;
2.2 139 days from 6 January to 24 May 2013; and
2.3 265 days from 14 June 2015 to 4 March 2016.
Accordingly, Mr Mohammed claims damages for false imprisonment. Following the earlier judgment of Hayden J. upon Mr Mohammed's claim for interim relief ( [2016] EWHC 447 (Admin)), the Home Office conceded that he had been falsely imprisoned for 149 days between 8 October 2015 and 4 March 2016. This case was listed before me to determine the remaining issues of liability. However, the Home Office conceded liability in respect of all three periods of detention late on the afternoon before trial. Furthermore, the Home Office abandoned its argument that the Court should only award nominal damages. It therefore falls to me to assess damages.
Mr Mohammed gave brief evidence in support of his case. In addition, he relied on the written evidence of Dr Lisa Wootton, a consultant in forensic psychiatry. The Home Office did not call any evidence.
FINDINGS OF FACT
EARLY LIFE IN AFRICA
As a 13-year-old boy, Mr Mohammed suffered unimaginable barbarity in Mogadishu at the outbreak of the Somali civil war. He had been at his mother's home when armed men from the Hawiye tribe demanded to speak to a male member of the family. His uncle stepped forward and identified the family as being from the Reer Aw Hassan clan. The uncle refused the men's demands for gold and jewellery, whereupon he was shot dead.
Mr Mohammed and a female cousin tried to hide behind his mother and aunts. The armed men pulled the girl away and raped her in the corner of the room before turning their attentions to Mr Mohammed. The men tried to cut out his tongue but only succeeded in cutting both sides of his mouth with their bayonets. Medical evidence showed that the cut on one side had been the full thickness of his cheek. The men then branded Mr Mohammed with a burning cattle prod, saying "remember us by this."
Mr Mohammed's account was rightly not challenged. Indeed, it was, in my judgment, plainly supported by the medical evidence:
7.1 First, Dr Margit Szel examined Mr Mohammed on 6 October 2015 upon his admission to an Immigration Removal Centre (an "IRC"). Dr Szel found scarring consistent with Mr Mohammed's report.
7.2 Secondly, Dr Jonathan Orrell examined Mr Mohammed on 10 November 2015. He again found physical evidence consistent with Mr Mohammed's account. Specifically, the straightness of the scarring on each side of his mouth was consistent with being caused by a bayonet. Dr Orrell discounted as unlikely the possibility that such wounds were self-inflicted. He also found further scarring that was consistent with the account of being branded with a cattle prod.
7.3 Thirdly, Dr Wootton diagnosed a moderately severe post-traumatic stress disorder that she attributed, not surprisingly, to the severe trauma of this childhood incident.
I therefore have no hesitation in finding on the balance of probabilities that Mr Mohammed was tortured as a 13-year-old boy in Mogadishu. Equally, I accept that Mr Mohammed has suffered a moderately severe post-traumatic stress disorder, the symptoms of which persist more than a quarter of a century after this horrific experience.
A few days after this incident, Mr Mohammed and his half-brother fled to Bulu Hawa, a city near to the Kenyan border. There they remained for a couple of years until Hawiye forces advanced closer to the city. The boys then fled across the Kenyan border to the Dadaab refugee camp where they lived for the next two years.
COMING TO THE UK
Mr Mohammed entered the UK on 2 February 1996 together with his half-brother. While his brother was a quiet and religious man, the young Mr Mohammed enjoyed the freedom of western society and soon found himself mixing in bad company. He explained, at paragraph 20 of his statement:
"My friends were crazy; they would drink, take all sorts of substances and steal cars. I wanted to fit in and became involved in those things too. I am not looking to blame anyone; I am responsible for my actions and decisions. But 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. I started spending all my time with my friends and began drinking more and more. It was soon clear I had developed a drinking problem and with that began my offending."
Mr Mohammed's offending has not, however, been limited to some minor youthful indiscretion. Over the last 20 years, he has become a habitual and violent criminal who has been sentenced to a number of significant sentences of imprisonment, most notably to two different sentences of four years' imprisonment for robbery. I set out below his full criminal record since coming to the UK:
| Date | Offence(s) | Sentence |
| 2 February 1998 | Shoplifting | Community service |
| 30 July 1998 | Criminal damage Failing to surrender to custody | Fined |
| 20 November 1998 | Allowing himself to be carried in a vehicle taken without authority Failing to surrender to custody | Fined |
| 12 January 1999 | Burglary | 4 months' detention in a young offenders' institution |
| 29 March 1999 | Possession of an offensive weapon | Conditional discharge |
| 26 March 2002 | Possession of cannabis Resisting or obstructing a constable | Fined |
| 6 November 2002 | Robbery (x2) | 4 years' imprisonment |
| 25 February 2002 | Deception | Fined |
| 17 March 2006 | Robbery | 2 years' imprisonment |
| 20 April 2009 | Disorderly behaviour | Fined |
| 28 May 2010 | Criminal damage | Community order |
| 13 January 2011 | Use of racially or religiously aggravated words | 12 weeks' imprisonment suspended for 12 months |
| 17 February 2011 | Failing to surrender to custody (x2) Failing to comply with the requirements of a community order | 12 weeks' imprisonment suspended for 12 months |
| 17 March 2011 | Failing to comply with the community requirements of a suspended sentence order | 12 weeks' imprisonment |
| 23 May 2011 | Common assault (x2) | 10 weeks' imprisonment |
| 25 July 2011 | Disorderly behaviour | 1 day's imprisonment |
| 17 November 2011 | Possession of a knife in a public place | 4 months' imprisonment |
| 24 May 2012 | Affray | 5 months' imprisonment |
| 22 August 2012 | Using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause fear or provocation of violence Shoplifting | Fined |
| 24 August 2012 | Common assault | 20 weeks' imprisonment |
| 26 November 2012 | Common assault | 18 weeks' imprisonment |
| 14 June 2013 | Possession of cannabis | Fined |
| 5 December 2013 | Robbery | 4 years' imprisonment |
At an earlier hearing, Mr Buttler said of his client, with what Hayden J. rightly described asironic understatement, that he "might not be considered an asset to society."
IMMIGRATION STATUS
Mr Mohammed claimed asylum immediately on entering the UK. His application was refused but he was granted leave to remain until 12 August 2000. On 24 February 2005, following his release from a long prison sentence, Mr Mohammed's solicitors submitted an application for indefinite leave to remain. That application was refused and a decision made that Mr Mohammed should be deported. Mr Mohammed's appeal against that decision was dismissed on 31 August 2007.
Mr Mohammed was first detained by the Home Office in connection with his planned deportation on 23 October 2007.
On 15 January 2008, the Home Office formally decided to deport Mr Mohammed. Through the Refugee Legal Centre, Mr Mohammed submitted fresh representations on 8 February 2008 based upon the deteriorating situation in Somalia. Three days later, Mr Mohammed applied to the European Court of Human Rights for a direction pursuant to rule 39 of that court's rules of procedure that he should not be removed from the UK while his application was outstanding. The following day, a direction was made by the European Court that Mr Mohammed should not be removed from the UK until further notice.
Thereafter, there were further periods of both imprisonment and immigration detention until, on 12 September 2012 he was again detained for the first of the periods that are now accepted to have been unlawful.
THE IMPACT OF DETENTION
Mr Mohammed has of course been imprisoned on many occasions. He points, however, to a difference between imprisonment and detention, at paragraph 45 of his statement:
"I have found being detained very difficult. I know I have been in prison on a number of occasions, but immigration detention is different. In prison, you know when you are going to be released; you have hope that there is an end point. With detention, there is no fixed point. I have spent long periods in detention. It has always made me feel frustrated and depressed. It makes me...
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