An asylum seeker who was once pictured carrying a sign saying “migrants are not criminals” has admitted three more serious sex offences. The Congolese national was jailed for nearly 11 years in 2024 after he raped a 15-year-old girl in Oxford, resulting in her becoming pregnant. On Tuesday, Anicet Mayela pleaded guilty to one count of rape and two counts of sexual activity with a child.
The new charges are related to attacks which took place in the same city as the first offence, between June 2016 and June 2017. Mayela, 41, originally tried to revoke his first guilty plea of rape, yet a judge refused. After arriving in Britain illegally in 2004, he has since fought against multiple deportation attempts, The Sun revealed.
One bid to stay included the sex offender claiming his hand was broken by Home Office staff, therefore he was unfit to travel on a flight to Congo. Attendants on the Air France plane then refused to take off with him onboard.
When Mayela first arrived in the UK, the Home Office denied his asylum claim. After challenging this decision at an immigration tribunal, the rapist, who worked as a porter at the John Radcliffe Hospital, was granted leave to remain on appeal in 2010.
The asylum seeker was previously photographed protesting outside a detention centre in Oxford, wearing a sign around his neck which read “migrants are not criminals”.
Mayela will be sentenced at Oxford crown court on June 6.
The Congolese national professed his innocence of the first count of rape, yet Judge Maria Lamb, who sentenced Mayela in November, told the him he had committed “a terrible offence”.
The judge said: “For her, it was her first sexual experience, and the misery that you caused to that child who became pregnant as a result must have been extreme.
“You continued to deny your offence. Your sentence will be no longer for that, but you don’t have the benefit of remorse, and she doesn’t have the support and assistance of knowing that you acknowledge your guilt.”
Edward Lucas, prosecuting, told the judge the teenage victim had an abortion in the months following the rape.
