An asylum seeker has been jailed for 10 years for raping a teenage girl. 

Anicet Mayela, of Desborough Crescent, Oxford, was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court today (November 19)

Mayela, 41, pleaded guilty to one count of raping a young girl. 

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The court previously heard that Mayela had been accused of raping a girl between December 1 and December 31 last year.

Anicet Mayela Anicet Mayela (Image: Thames Valley Police) Sentencing him at Oxford Crown Court, Judge Maria Lamb said: “This was a terrible offence committed in drink. 

“For her, it was her first sexual experience and the misery you caused must have been extreme.

“You do not have the benefit of remorse. She is a remarkable young woman and has even found it possible to forgive you.”

Judge Lamb added: “This was a vulnerable child. She had to go through the experience of a terminated pregnancy. 

“It was aggravated by the fact you were in drink. You were unable to resist your sexual impulses.”

Mayela was jailed for a total of 10 years and 10 months.

After two thirds of the sentence, he can be released to serve the remaining years in the community. 

He was also handed a sexual harm prevention order for life and has been banned from working with children and vulnerable adults. 

Edward Lucas, prosecuting, told the judge the teenage victim had an abortion in the months following the rape.

Mayela was first interviewed by police on March 13 this year, when he made “full admissions, but denied using any force on the complainant”.

The 41-year-old appeared in the dock dressed in prisoners’ grey tracksuit, and was assisted throughout the hearing by a French interpreter.

Several family members watched from the public gallery as he was sentenced.

After Mayela’s court appearance in April this year, it had been reported that several unsuccessful attempts had previously been made to remove him from the UK before he was given permission to stay in the country.

It is understood the Home Office initially refused Mayela’s asylum claim in 2004 but he successfully challenged the decision in the courts and was eventually granted leave to remain on appeal in 2010.

According to an article published by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) in 2005, he was served three removal notices and left with a broken hand during one deportation attempt while another flight is said to have been grounded after the airline’s cabin crew refused to carry him.

The IRR report said Mayela paid an agent to help him flee his home country in 2004 because his life was in danger and that he initially lived in Plymouth while his initial asylum claim was considered.

But this was refused and his first appeal was dismissed by the courts later that year. By 2005 he was being held in immigration detention centres while attempts were made to deport him, but he was later released.

Mayela, thought to be a former economics student, also appears to have supported protests outside Campsfield House, an immigration detention centre in Kidlington, that same year.