A VULNERABLE Vietnamese teenager, illegally trafficked to Merseyside to cultivate cannabis, walked free from court today (Friday, December 7).

A merciful judge yesterday deliberately, and unusually, adjourned his case so that he could be further remanded in custody - as otherwise he would have ended up on the streets penniless, with nowhere to go and without a word of English.

Tuan Anh, whom the Home Office has confirmed is a victim of human slavery, denied being concerned in cultivating cannabis and the prosecution today formally offered no evidence.

When he appeared at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday, clutching a photograph of his late mum, his lawyer, John Weate, fought back tears as he told of the 18-year-old orphan’s vulnerability and asked for him to be sent back to Altcourse prison overnight.

He explained that an appointment had been made for him to attend an immigration centre in Liverpool today and he would then be looked after by the authorities while he applies for asylum. Specialist immigration lawyers will be engaged to pursue his application.

Judge David Aubrey, QC, agreed to the request and today praised Mr Weate for his compassion.

Mr Weate said that he would personally walk the youngster to the city centre immigration office and on learning that he had given up two other ‘briefs’ to be able to do so the judge said that if they had been in his court he would have waited for him to return “and waited for however long it took.”

Mr Weate pointed out, “Sometimes other things are more important”

“That is why I would have waited,” said Judge Aubrey.

He entered a not guilty verdict on the charge and said that the Home Office had rightly found that Anh had been trafficked into the country.

The court heard that Anh’s mother died when he was six and he lived with his dad who became ill and could not work. He died in a road accident with Anh, an only child, was 11. Gangsters took over the family home and threw him out and he lived on the streets of Hanoi until he was 17 and was then “scooped” up by traffickers.

He was arrested on September 28 when police raided a house in Glenalmond Road, Egremont, Wallasey, and found Anh and two other young Vietnamese men working there looking after about 250 cannabis plants. The Home Office has ruled that the two other men had not been illegally trafficked.

Anh told police he had come to Britain on the back of a lorry after being lied to in Vietnam and his job was to water the plants. He was not allowed to leave and was not paid and was living in fear.

Judge Aubrey said that the defendant had had the benefit of “an extremely able and conscientious advocate who had displayed his own compassion objectively throughout the course of these proceedings.

He said the newspapers frequently carry stories about fees paid within the justice system, about which he did not want to comment.

But he pointed out, I”m aware how much time and energy Mr Weate expended in these proceedings and further illustrated by the fact that he now himself intends to take the defendant from this building to the immigration authorities.

“As Mr Weate said sometimes there are things that are far more important than what we read about in the daily newspapers.”