A Vietnamese teenager who was caught cultivating cannabis in Wirral has been shown mercy by a judge - because he is the victim of human slavery.

Tuan Anh was due to be thrown penniless and homeless onto the streets of Liverpool on Thursday but Judge David Aubrey, QC, agreed to help him by keeping him in custody overnight.

Liverpool Crown Court heard the prosecution intend to offer no evidence against the 18-year-old after it was confirmed by the Home Office that he had been illegally trafficked into this country to garden at a cannabis farm.

But if the judge then entered a not guilty verdict on the youth would then automatically be released from custody onto the street with no money, no accommodation and just the clothes he was wearing.

His lawyer John Weate became overcome with emotion while explaining the plight of the baby-faced orphan, who was clutching a photograph of his dead mum in the dock, and described him “as very vulnerable.”

A Home Office appointment has been made for Anh to attend an immigration centre on Friday morning in the city and given a bail form but Mr Weate queried how the defendant - who does not speak a word of English - was supposed to find his way there and said that he would pay for the taxi fare himself.

“How do the authorities expect a young man in this situation to find his way to the reporting centre? - even I don’t know where it is,” said Judge David Aubrey, QC.

He said that he was not sympathetic to the idea of being asked to “remand an innocent man into custody but I have sympathy of course as to the humanity of the application.

“I am being asked to do something that I find displays the common humanity and justice which I always believe are the hallmarks and foundation of our system.”

Mr Weate told the court 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 is going to apply for asylum which Mr Weate explained means that he will receive official help after getting to the immigration centre tomorrow.

Police raided a house in Glenalmond Road, Egremont, Wallasey, on September 28 and found Anh and two other young Vietnamese men working there looking after about 250 cannabis plants.

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.

The case first appeared in the court earlier this week and was adjourned for more inquiries to be made with the CPS and the Home Office.

Anh appeared via video link from Altcourse prison on that day - without the help of an interpreter - and the judge today praised the prison officer accompanying him for “his compassion and humanity.”

Anh pleaded guilty to being concerned in the production of cannabis between June 1 and September 29 this year.

Judge Aubrey postponed the case until Friday and further remanded Anh, who was assisted by an interpreter, in custody.