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WON: Woman granted leave to remain in the UK by the Home Office

A JAMAICAN lesbian has won the right to stay in the UK on the grounds she risked persecution if she returned to her home country.

The Immigration and Asylum Tribunal heard the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was forced to live as a “discreet” lesbian in Jamaica, hiding her sexuality and meeting covertly with other women.

The court heard that that she had endured being forced to hear songs with anti-gay lyrics and was even threatened with corrective rape by a group of men who pledged to “convert” her.

She said she suffered years of clinical depression before arriving in the UK in 2003.

The woman, from Stoke-on-Trent was originally refused “refugee protection”, but has since been granted leave to remain in the UK by the Home Office.