A paedophile migrant who failed to disclose his conviction for molesting a five-year-old to UK authorities has won the right to fight against his deportation. 

An immigration judge ruled Edi Cardoso Ramos, 29, made an ‘honest mistake’ when he did not mention his criminal past while applying for leave to remain in the UK. 

He had been convicted of a ‘serious sexual offence’ against a five-year-old in his home country of Portugal for which he received a three-year suspended sentence.

His sordid past only came to light when Ramos was caught in the UK with a prostitute and a police background check uncovered the conviction, prompting the Home Office to start deportation proceedings.   

But Ramos has now successfully appealed against his deportation, after a judge accepted that he had misunderstood an official form asking about his previous convictions and concluding that ‘the threat he represents is not a present threat’.

It means his case will be heard from afresh and he will have the chance to fight deportation.

The Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber heard that Ramos was convicted of sexually abusing his child victim in 2014 when he was 19 years old, having committed the offence in 2012.

Ramos was given a three-year suspended custodial sentence which did not activate because he complied with its requirements.

He migrated to the UK in 2018, just a year after the sentence expired, but when he applied for leave to remain in 2020 he denied having any prior convictions on the form.

He would later claim this was because he thought the form was asking if he had any prior convictions in the UK specifically.

Ramos was then caught in 2024 with a prostitute in his car and accepted a police caution as his punishment.

The Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber (pictured) heard Edi Cardoso Ramos was convicted of sexually abusing a child in 2014 when he was 19 years old

But when the police looked into his past, his offending in Portugal was finally revealed to UK authorities.

The Home Office tried to deport Ramos, but he appealed against the decision.

The Home Office disputed the basis for his appeal, saying Ramos ‘posed a risk to women and girls in the United Kingdom’, but Judge Paul Lodato has allowed the appeal to proceed.

He said: ‘Does (Ramos) represent a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat to “a fundamental interest of society”? It was agreed that if I conclude that he does not, his appeal falls to be allowed.

‘Having considered this issue very carefully, I am not satisfied, based on the evidence before me, that the (Home Office) has established that the threat (Ramos) represents is a present threat.

‘I do not think that it has been made out that outraging public decency and soliciting indicates a continuation of a pattern of offending of the kind of which (Ramos) was convicted in 2014.’

The judge said he had taken into account the failure by Ramos to disclose his 2014 conviction and that it raised a legitimate question of whether he had acted ‘dishonestly’.

But he continued: ‘The form asked him: “Have you ever been convicted of a criminal offence, or arrested or charged with an offence that you are on trial for or awaiting trial?”. (Ramos) accepted that he answered “No”. (His) explanation is that he understood the question to be asking him whether he had been convicted of any criminal offences in the United Kingdom.

‘I accept (Ramos’s) explanation as being credible. I find that he made an honest mistake when he answered the question about his previous convictions and that his failure to disclose the material fact of his 2014 conviction in Portugal was not dishonest.

‘I therefore do not consider (Ramos’s) non-disclosure of his 2014 conviction when he completed his 2020 leave to remain application indicates that (Ramos) is a present threat…(Ramos) is a genuine and sufficiently serious threat, but one that is not present.

‘For these reasons, I am satisfied that the appeal falls to be allowed.’