A SRI Lankan care worker convicted of sexual assault on an elderly woman with a mental disorder at a Sittingbourne care home is waiting to be deported.

Harry Perera, 59, was convicted of sexual assault last April and sentenced to 18 months in prison. But he has served less than a year, even being pictured by the Kent Messenger Group at a computer course on Sheppey in May.

At the time of his conviction, it was said in court that deportation papers would be issued to him ready for when his visa expired in October 2007.

But he is still in the UK, nine months later.

Perera has been banned from working in nursing homes and hospitals, is on the sex offenders register for 10 years and was this week struck off the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register.

He had been working in the UK to support his family in Sri Lanka and had planned to bring them here for a better life.

But on March 28, 2006, he was caught by a colleague abusing a patient in his care at the Frank Lloyd Nursing Home in Bell Road.

The female colleague found him in a toilet with the patient with his trousers and underpants pulled down to his knees, with one hand down the front of the woman’s trousers while he performed a sex act on himself with the other.

He was immediately suspended and faced trial a year later, where he was convicted and sent to prison.

The Home Office cannot comment on individual cases and could not reveal why Perera is still here, nine months after his visa expired.

Foriegn prisoners are automatically deported at the end of their sentence but it’s not a case of putting them on a plane and sending them off.

Liaison between the deporting and the recieving countries needs to take place and if an appeal against the deportation is lodged, this delays the process until the outcome is decided.

A spokesman said: “We do not comment on individual cases. We strongly believe that foreign lawbreakers should be held to account for breaking the law and be sent home. Last year we deported a record number of foreign prisoners (more than 4,200). This was 80 per cent more than the previous year.”

They also told us that the more serious offenders are considered for deportation first, and risk of re-offending is taken into account.

They do not put a time-frame on the length of time between issuing deportation papers to removal from the country, as each case is 'individual’ and they must take human rights into account.

Guidelines issued by the Home Office state: 'The Human Rights Act must also be taken into account when establishing whether any interference with the person’s right to privacy and family life is proportionate. The criteria to be considered here include the persons’ length of residence in the UK, social integration into British society, their age, health and their economic situation.’