Rochdale grooming gang leader released from jail

The Pakistani ringleader of the Rochdale grooming gang has been released from prison amid growing calls for his deportation.

Shabir Ahmed, 73, who was convicted of 30 child rape offences, cannot be thrown out of the country despite being stripped of his British citizenship.

He is protected by a loophole in the Immigration Act 1971, which exempts Commonwealth citizens who arrived in Britain before 1973 from removal.

He has lived in the UK long enough to qualify for the exemption after arriving from Pakistan, which was a Commonwealth member at the time.

Ahmed, who was sentenced to 22 years in 2012, has now been released from a prison in the north of England after serving 14 years.

He is set to be accommodated at a bail hostel in the region, where he will be under 24-hour supervision, subject to electronic tagging and banned from entering Oldham, where he lived, or Rochdale, where he committed his crimes.

A growing number of Labour and Conservative MPs have called for the law to be changed to allow foreign-born child rapists such as Ahmed to be deported.

Jim McMahon, the Labour MP for Oldham, said he was dangerous, had been refused parole three times and posed an “ongoing risk” to children.

Mr McMahon said: “Having had his British citizenship revoked, he should not be able to benefit from what is effectively a loophole in the Immigration Act 1971 that was intended to protect law-abiding Commonwealth citizens.

“Every available avenue should be explored to secure his deportation now that he has completed his sentence. If that requires a change in the law, then the law should be changed.”

Andy Burnham, who is expected to succeed Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister later this month, said: “Like everyone, I want this vile criminal out of the country. Victims must come first. I will ask the Home and Foreign Secretaries to review all possible options – and they should consider nothing is off the table.”

Sir Keir has asked Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, to review the “particularly heinous” case.

“We are absolutely clear that where foreign nationals commit offences in the UK we will do everything in our power to remove them,” No 10 said.

The Home Office said it was considering closing the loophole and “doing everything possible” to deport foreign offenders.

However, there are concerns that even if the law were changed, Pakistan would be likely to resist his return. It has refused to take back two of Ahmed’s co-ringleaders in the nine-man Rochdale grooming gang who were also stripped of British citizenship.

Mr McMahon said Britain should apply diplomatic pressure, saying: “I don’t believe that Pakistan want to protect this person more than they want the relationship with the UK to be strong.

“But in the end it is about them prioritising it, it is about them stepping up and it is about saying: I think Britain has a proud history of welcoming people, of being inclusive.

“But if people don’t play by the rules, if they abuse the trust of the British people, we have the right like every country to say enough is enough. And that is where we are with this case.”

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has been forced to spend thousands of pounds enforcing exclusion zones to prevent Ahmed from entering Rochdale or returning to Oldham.

Paul Waugh, the Rochdale MP, said the law needed to be changed. “The vile paedophile should be deported to Pakistan and not allowed anywhere near those he so wickedly abused,” he said.

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said he would attempt to close the loophole by laying an amendment to change the Immigration Act 1971.

On Thursday morning, Baroness Smith of Malvern, the Labour peer and government minister, said officials were “looking at every route” to deport Ahmed. “We’re doing everything we can, looking at every route to get this guy out of the country,” she told LBC.

They intervened after a victim of the grooming gang said that she was scared for her safety and that of her children.

“Ruby”, who was raped more than 100 times from the age of 12 by the gang, also urged Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, to close the legal loophole.

She wrote: “Twenty years on – broken victims because of a broken system – things need to change. There has been no support for the victims of the abuse, the offender is being released from prison [on Thursday].

“There is no team of people in place – despite the government saying there would be a dedicated team for victims – and that has not been done.

“There are broken victims because of a broken system. I am scared for my safety and my children’s safety. The main ringleader, who is well known in Rochdale, Oldham and Middleton, is being released from prison.

“Even if he is not in those areas, he still knows people and could contact them, which makes me feel unsafe.”

Ruby said victims had been told at the end of the trial in 2012 that members of the grooming gang would be deported once released from jail – yet not one of them had been.

Ahmed received concurrent sentences of 22 and 19 years as one of the nine men convicted of multiple sex offences against the children whom they groomed at two takeaway restaurants in Rochdale.

Liverpool Crown Court was told he had abused one girl for more than a decade, using her as a “possession” for his own sexual gratification. She was abused on an almost weekly basis.

The two other Rochdale gang members who were stripped of their citizenship but not deported are Qari Abdul Rauf and Adil Khan. They were convicted as ringleaders of the nine-strong gang of Asian men who sexually assaulted 47 girls over two years.

A Home Office spokesman said: “On his release he will be on the sex offender’s register for life, ordered to stay away from his victims and banned from contacting any child or young person.

“As well as facing strict curfews and restriction zones, his every movement will be tracked, forced to wear an electronic tag. Should he breach his conditions, he will be immediately locked up.”

[Source: Daily Telegraph]