Sierra Leone sprinter Jimmy Thoronka released from police custody
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Version 0 of 1. Jimmy Thoronka, the athlete from Sierra Leone who disappeared at the end of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow last August and was then arrested in London on Friday, has been released from police custody and taken to Home Office accommodation. The whereabouts of the 20-year-old, Sierra Leone’s leading 100m sprinter, had been a mystery until last week. He was arrested for overstaying his visa and held at Walworth police station, where he claimed asylum. Speaking to the Guardian before his arrest, he said he hadn’t wanted to go home after hearing that his adoptive family had been wiped out in the Ebola crisis. Immigration officials took over his case while he was in custody and he was released at about 10pm on Saturday night. “I am so happy that I am free again,” he said on Sunday. “At first I was told that they were going to send me back to Sierra Leone and I cried and cried. I was very scared.” Related: Jimmy Thoronka: concerns raised over Sierra Leone athlete's welfare after arrest Thoronka, who has spent the winter living rough in London, said two plainclothes police officers arrested him as he was hurrying to a park where he had left a bag. He said he was asked about drugs, searched and taken to a police station, where officers brought him tea and blankets. A Sierra Leone government spokesman said it was aware of Thoronka’s ordeal and that his village in the Bombali district had been badly hit by Ebola. “All that area is currently under quarantine,” he said. John Momodu Kargbo, who heads an Ebola response team in the district said his village was in the poorest chiefdom of the Bombali region. “Gbendembu, where Jimmy is from, is in the main village of the Gbendembu Gowahun district. It is the poorest chiefdom in the district, very remote, very rural and not many people live there. “The living standards are very poor, people live in thatched houses, some living in better standard houses, but there is no running water and sanitation is very poor,” said Kargbo who is one of 600 staff employed by the British charity Street Child. A campaign has sprung up to help the promising young runner. Thoronka has attracted widespread sympathy in the UK and from Iceland, Kenya, Ecuador, Argentina, the US and New Zealand. Scores of people have offered accommodation, and supportive messages have been directed at him via social media, including from the actor Samantha Morton and the model Lily Cole. A gofundme.com campaign set up on Friday has hit its target of raising £20,000. Campaigners are appealing to countries across Europe, North America and the Caribbean to offer him a chance to continue his training. Speaking after his release, Thoronka said he was hoping for another chance to fulfil his dreams. “I am amazed that people all over the world have offered to help me after they read my story,” he said. “I don’t know how to thank everyone. If I can make a success of my life as a sprinter my plan is to go back to Sierra Leone and help homeless people. I know how much suffering there is when you are homeless. Last week I had no hope but now maybe I will make it.” He added that when he was sleeping in the park he believed he had no future. “When I was doing my exercises and running in the park one of the main reasons for doing so was just to keep warm because I was cold all the time.” He has not been working illegally, nor claiming benefits or housing. A spokesperson for the Home Office said on Sunday that it does not routinely comment on individual cases. |