An Albanian who beat a man so violently with an umbrella that it disintegrated before smashing his face on the pavement has won his case to remain in Britain.
Vangel Gkika, 50, won an asylum case after serving a two-and-a-half-year jail term for the ‘brutal’ assault.
He faced deportation over the attack in 2020, but now the immigration court has ruled he can stay because it was a ‘one-off’.
Gkika was jailed after he travelled on the London Underground to a location where he knew his victim – a friend of his – would be and carried out the ‘brutal’ assault.
His weapon, an umbrella, was used with so much ‘force’ it physically disintegrated and then Gkika smashed his victim’s head on the pavement twice.
His victim was traumatised and needed surgery.
Gkika, who is a dual national of both Albania and Greece, is a painter and decorator and is based in Surrey.
After a five-year delay, the Upper Tribunal has now heard his appeal against his deportation order.
The Upper Tier Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber (pictured)
It was ruled that the father does not pose a ‘genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat’.
The Upper Tribunal heard that Albanian-born Gkika moved to the UK in 2013 after living in Greece for 22 years.
In 2016, he carried out the ‘sustained and violent assault’ on a man who he had been having an ongoing dispute with.
The panel heard he had known the man for many years as their mothers were friends and neighbours.
In his witness statement, he said they were childhood friends and had grown up together in Albania.
Bu, their relationship ‘soured’ and the pair exchanged several threatening and abusive messages to one another.
Gkika said a ‘bitter dispute’ had arisen between them, which resulted in the assault.
On the day of the attack, Gkika took the London Underground to an area where he knew his victim would be.
The judgment states: ‘He attacked him using an umbrella, which he used with such force that it disintegrated. When it did so, [Mr Gkika] took the man’s head and banged it twice onto the pavement where he had been standing.’
It was heard the victim needed surgery, having sustained a broken cheekbone and scarring to his face, and the following year he was still experiencing dizziness and anxiety.
Gkika was set for trial in 2017 but he changed his plea at the last minute and he was sentenced to 32 months in jail.
The judge also imposed a 10-year restraining order which is due to expire in 2027, it was heard.
After he was released from custody, Gkika returned to live with his wife and children at their home in Surrey.
The Secretary of State signed a deportation order against him in September 2018 as it was established that the ‘personal conduct of the person concerned represents a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat affecting one of the fundamental interests of society’.
After hearing evidence that Gkika was an ‘aggressor’, the official said his ‘deportation was a justified interference with his right to freedom of movement’.
Gkika appealed the decision to the First-tier Tribunal, but this was dismissed in March 2020.
Lawyers representing the Home Office referred to eyewitnesses who said they were surprised his victim had ‘not lost an eye’
He again appealed it to the Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber.
Upper Tribunal Judge Gaenor Bruce found the previous tribunal had made an error in law for several reasons.
The judge said that ‘significant’ weight was placed in the earlier decision on the fact that Gkika had not completed any rehabilitation courses in prison.
But, Judge Bruce heard that no courses were offered to Gkika, who was a first-time offender and ‘not deemed a sufficiently high risk to justify the expense’.
Judge Bruce also said that in the earlier proceedings, Gkika was asked to disprove that he ‘posed a risk’ – when actually this should have been a matter for the Home Office to prove.
The judge said for reasons that remain unclear, nothing further happened in the appeal until this year.
Lawyers representing the Home Office spoke of the ‘brutal’ assault, and referred to eyewitnesses who said they were surprised his victim had ‘not lost an eye’.
They said ‘an aggravating feature of the assault was the use of the umbrella as a weapon’.
Lawyers representing Gkika referred to comments from the trial judge, who sentenced Mr Gkika, and described the assault as an ‘aberration’ and that he was otherwise a ‘model citizen’.
Judge Bruce said that Gkika is self-employed as a painter and decorator, and has several ‘glowing testimonials’ from satisfied customers.
They said his children have grown up in the UK and are now either at university or college, and that Gkika ‘deeply regrets’ his part in this violence, which was a ‘one off’.
Judge Bruce upheld Mr Gkika’s appeal, meaning he will not be deported.
The judge said: ‘The offence was, on all the available evidence, quite plainly out of character and was indeed a ‘one-off’.
‘That is not to diminish the harm that it caused to the victim, or to in any way disagree that [Gkika] should have been sent to prison for a significant amount of time. He clearly should have been.
‘The central question for me today is whether there is a ‘genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat’ in [Gkika] today being allowed to remain in the UK.
‘There is no evidence at all that he is a risk to anyone other than the victim of the original assault, and in respect of that, the evidence amounts to this.
‘I am satisfied that he understands only too well that any further offending, harassment or harm to his victim could see him facing deportation again, and the life he has built for himself and his family here destroyed.’
