I asked the Home Office whether the law was being changed such that a convicted sex offender like Kaddour-Cherif would in future be deported if their visa entitlement to be in the UK had expired. It turns out that doing so is complicated. A minister had reminded me that the Border Security bill going through parliament - it is in the Lords today - would prohibit sex offenders claiming asylum in the UK. But, the Home Office later told me, this clause would not help the government to expel an over-stayer like Kaddour-Cherif, even though he was convicted in the UK of indecent exposure, was given a community service order and was put on the sex offenders’ register. Apparently he can only be expelled if the UK reforms or pulls out of Article Three of the European Convention on Human Rights. This is the ECHR provision which says even criminals cannot be deported from the UK if they would face torture or inhumane living conditions in the new host country. The Home Office believes Kaddour-Cherif, an Algerian national, would make a successful claim to stay here under Article Three. For this reason, in a generic sense, the new Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, is determined to extract the UK from Article Three or reform it. Or so I am assured. However such reform cannot be rushed. And if Kaddour-Cherif is eventually found and returned to prison, he may remain in the UK longer than most people would want.