A prolific offender used a legal loophole to avoid being deported before stabbing another man to death in a machete fight in Greenwich.

Ernesto Elliott, 45, had committed a total of 17 crimes, including possession of an imitation firearm since arriving in the UK in 2003.

His lawyers submitted an appeal by referencing Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights, as reported by the Daily Express.

The appeal argued that deportation would breach Elliott's rights by separating him from his UK-based relatives.

Six months after he was due to be deported in December 2020, him and his son Nico, 23, one of the members of the family referenced in his appeal, was convicted of the murder of Nathaniel Eyewu-Ago.

It is reported by the Daily Express that the Home Office already turned down his arguments when he applied for asylum for the second time in the early 2010s.

Have you got a story for us? You can contact us here.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep up with all the latest news.

Sign up to our newsletters to get updates sent straight to your inbox.

His arrest after the fatal attack in Greenwich is understood to have blocked his removal from Britain.

The case attracted the attention of figures, including supermodel Naomi Campbell, actress Thandiwe Newton and historian Professor David Olusoga.

They signed an open letter against the flight to Jamaica on which Ernesto Elliot was due to travel.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott and Baroness Shami Chakrabarti also signed separate letters.

In 2018, Ernesto Elliott was jailed for three years for possession of an imitation firearm and a knife, in breach of a suspended sentence and with convictions for other knife and drug offences.

The Home Secretary is required to make a deportation order against foreign criminals sent to prison for 12 months or longer.

Last month, Ernesto and Nico Elliot were jailed for life at the Old Bailey for the Greenwich murder, with Ernesto Elliott handed a minimum sentence of 26 years and Nico Elliott a minimum sentence of 22 years.

Mr Eyewu-Ago was stabbed through the heart and collapsed, dying in hospital six days later.