A serial sex offender has had his deportation from the UK halted by a judge - because he said the Home Office should have asked him how he felt about his offending. South African national Phile Ngema, 28, has been convicted of four indecent exposures, failing to obey community orders and has been subject of a sex offenders notice for 15 years. During his most recent crime in 2018 he overtook his victim as she was walking through a park before waiting for her, staring at her as he exposed himself and carried out a sex act. She told police 'He was looking at her straight in the eye' and that she thought he 'wanted her to see what he was doing' But the Bristol-based offender won his appeal against a tribunal ruling which decided he should not be allowed to stay in the county. Despite the seriousness of his crimes Upper Tribunal Judge Declan O'Callaghan said the Home Office – referred to as the respondent in his judgement – had not cross-examined Ngema about the proceedings and his views on his crimes. He told the Immigration and Asylum Chamber at Field House, London that it meant the judge at that original hearing made an error in law by concluding he was a 'persistent offender'. Judge O'Callaghan said: 'Unusually the respondent decided not to cross examine either the appellant or his witnesses before the First-tier Tribunal Phile Ngema, 28, has been convicted in court of four indecent exposures since 2012 He is currently on the sex offenders' register after a series of crimes in the south west On August 9, 2018, he targeted a woman just after 8.10am in Bristol's pretty Perrett Park 'It would not be appropriate for this Tribunal when considering materiality to consider issues upon which the appellant was not given a fair opportunity to comment on matters now said to be wholly adverse to him. 'I make the following observation with respect to the decision of the respondent not to cross examine the witnesses before the First-tier Tribunal, a decision said to have been made on the purported basis that there was nothing controversial in their evidence. 'It is striking that the appellant provides very little detail as to his conviction in 2018 beyond asserting that he pleaded not guilty. 'Whilst complaining that the victim changed her witness statement, there is no confirmation in the appellant's witness statement as to his attending a trial and being found guilty. 'I am surprised that the appellant was not cross-examined on his continued denial of the offence. Nor was there any engagement with the appellant as to how such denial impacts upon his ability to address sexual preoccupation and deviant fantasies linked to voyeurism.' Ngema's convictions stretch back as far as June 8, 2012 where he was handed a community order at South Somerset and Mendip Magistrates Court for two indecent exposures. A judge had ruled Ngema should be deported back to birth country South Africa in March Foreign criminals on our streets soar to a record 11,000, new figures reveal The number of foreign criminals released from prison on to the streets has reached a record high of almost 11,000. Official figures show that at the end of June there were 10,882 foreign national offenders who had been released from jail but not deported. All are subject to deportation because they were handed prison sentences of at least 12 months. The 'staggering' total was up by nearly 1,500 in a year. It means four foreign criminals a day, on average, were freed to live in the community in the past 12 months. The latest total has rocketed by 176 per cent since 2012, when the number stood at less than 4,000. More than 3,000 foreign criminals have been living in the community for more than five years after completing their jail terms, Home Office data showed, while a further 4,000 have been on the streets for between one and five years. The numbers have surged during the pandemic. Hundreds are thought to have won their freedom after applying for bail under laws which say they can only be kept in immigration detention if there is a 'realistic prospect of imminent removal'. Advertisement He had been near a care home when he committed the crimes and later claimed he could not remember them because he had been high on drugs. The next year he was up at Taunton Crown Court again for indecent exposure and given another community order. Again he said he had been high on drugs at the time and had not closed his curtains when he was watching pornography. By September 21, 2015, he was in Bristol Crown Court for failing to comply with a community order then again on January 6, 2016, for the same offence. Over a year later he was before Avon and Somerset Magistrates' Court to be convicted of three counts of failing to comply with notification requirements. But on August 9, 2018, he targeted a woman just after 8.10am in the morning in Bristol's Perrett Park. The female victim was walking through the park and approaching a 'zig-zag' path when she saw Ngema run down a hill and cut across her path. He continued in the direction of the exit from the park which leads into a neighbouring road. A she approached the same exit, she observed the appellant standing in an alcove by garages, making a fast and rhythmic movement. She noticed that he had exposed himself and was performing a sex act, looking straight at her. Ngema claimed he had been simply going to the toilet. He was jailed in October 29, 2018, and placed on the sex offenders' register for seven years, which sparked the deportation bid. Now his appeal has succeeded his case will be heard again in front of a tribunal. A Home Office spokesperson said: 'We make no apology for trying to protect the public from serious, violent and persistent foreign national offenders 'Any foreign national who is convicted of a crime and given a prison sentence is considered for deportation at the earliest opportunity, and since January 2019 we have removed 8,441 foreign national offenders. 'Our New Plan for Immigration will stop the abuse of the system and expedite the removal of those who have no right to be here.' All rights reserved for this news site (dailymail) and under his responsibility