The widower of murdered Bradford policewoman Sharon Beshenivsky has condemned an “appalling” decision to allow a Somali who hid her killer the right to stay in the country.

Paul Beshenivsky of Hainworth, near Keighley, voiced outrage after Hewan Gordon, 38, won an appeal against a Government bid to deport him.

Gordon was imprisoned for hiding cold-blooded murderer Muzzaker Shah, one of the gang which shot dead PC Beshenivsky after she was called to a raid on a Bradford travel agents in November 2005. The Home Office wanted to kick Gordon out of the country – back to his war-torn homeland of Somalia.

But an immigration tribunal has backed his plea to be allowed to remain in the UK.

Speaking to the T&A, Mr Beshenivsky said: “It is appalling that he is being allowed to stay in a country where he shouldn’t have been anyway. It was down to the Government, who wanted to get this man deported, and then you get these do-gooders letting him stay.

“They ought to have come and look at it from the other side of the table, and seen the effect this has had on our lives. Their decision is pathetic.”

Judges sitting on the Special Immigration Appeals Commission made the decision to allow Gordon to stay. It is understood to have been made on human rights grounds.

Gordon was originally jailed for 18 months in 2007 for helping murderer Muzzaker Shah evade capture, prolonging the agony for PC Beshenivsky’s family and hindering a nationwide police hunt.

Shah, the ringleader of the gang described by a judge as “ruthless and dangerous” was eventually jailed for murder last year for a minimum of 35 years.

Michael Downes, chairman of the West Yorkshire Police Federation, which speaks on behalf of 6,000 rank-and-file officers, said: “A person who assists a murderer is, in my opinion, as guilty as the murderer.

“This individual is not fit to draw breath or tread the soils of this land. I am absolutely outraged at the decision of the immigration appeal commission.”

The UK Border Agency, which had served Gordon with a deportation notice on his release, is understood to be taking legal advice in a bid to overturn the latest ruling.

It comes only days after the T&A reported that convicted Bradford heroin smuggler Abdul Waheed Khan, 34, won an appeal against deportation to Pakistan after a European Court ruling.

He served three years of his seven-year sentence and an application was made by the then Home Secretary to deport him to Pakistan due to the seriousness of the offence. But Mr Khan appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled deportation would be a violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.