Rochdale grooming gang leader who raped girls is set to be released from prison as No 10 insists it is powerless to deport him

The leader of the notorious Rochdale care gang, convicted of raping 30 children, is being released from prison today as Downing Street insists it is powerless to deport him from Britain.

Shabir Ahmed, 73, is leaving HMP Leeds on Thursday and will begin civilian life in a bail hostel in the north of England, costing taxpayers around £120 a night.

Although he was convicted in 2012 of multiple rapes and sexual offenses against young girls, his victims, most of whom were white, working-class children, were told he could not be deported to Pakistan.

They also expressed concern for their safety as the leader of the Rochdale grooming gang was released after serving 14 years of a 19-year sentence behind bars.

Ahmed held dual British-Pakistani citizenship and was stripped of his British citizenship following his conviction. But the Government insists it has no legal power to remove him from the UK.
Prime Minister-in-waiting Andy Burnham said he would ask senior ministers to find a way to deport him and declared ‘nothing is off the table’.

But he was weakened by Downing Street today when Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said ‘We cannot deport someone protected by the Immigration Act 1971’, linking it to the Windrush scandal.

Asked whether Mr Starmer was upset about the law preventing Ahmed’s deportation, the spokesman added: ‘It is fair to say that the Prime Minister will always want these despicable criminals to be deported.’

Shabir Ahmed told his victims to call him “Father” A Pakistani citizen who acquired British citizenship by naturalisation. He gave 13-year-old girls drink and drugs before ‘driving them around’ to be abused by him and eight friends.

Shabir Ahmed accuses white community of failing girls who testified against him and his sex ring during trial in 2012

He has spent years fighting deportation to Pakistan at taxpayers’ expense, citing human rights laws and arguing that his removal from the UK would affect the welfare of his children.

Following his conviction, he complained about the presence of ‘eleven white jurors’ at his trial, adding: ‘It is fashionable these days to blame everything on Muslims.’

Ahmed, who has been married three times, has four children living in the UK, having moved here from Pakistan nearly 50 years ago.

Andy Burnham, while mayor of Greater Manchester in 2022, called on the Conservative government to “go all out”. [its] ‘Power to deport grooming gang members’.

The failure to deport members of grooming gangs has caused deep anger in communities and among victims.

In 2012, Sir Keir, then head of the Crown Prosecution Service, oversaw the imprisonment of the gang.

But Abdulaziz, one of those jailed last year, won a human rights battle that prevented him from being deported to Pakistan.

Justice Secretary Jake Richards told the BBC’s Politics Live program that there were long-standing problems with ‘our ability to deport foreign national criminals to Pakistan’.

‘We need to study this and see if it’s possible, but in this case it doesn’t seem likely,’ he said.

Asked whether the law should be changed to allow deportation, he said: ‘I think it is very difficult to change the law in hindsight.’

But he added that he was “absolutely concerned with this individual and if he is to be released from prison, we are first looking at what we do to take care of his victims and keep the community safe.”

Meanwhile, a victim identified only as ‘Ruby’ said: ‘I fear for my safety and the safety of my children.

‘The main ringleader, who is well known in Rochdale, Oldham and Middleton, is out of prison, so even if he’s not in the area he still knows people and has the chance to talk to people in that area and that makes me distrustful.’

He said victims of abuse were given ‘false promises’ and were left to ‘fend for themselves’ due to a lack of support from the authorities.

The documents, published online and appearing to be from the Probation Service, state that he cannot be deported back to Pakistan due to provisions of the Immigration Act 1971 that prevent his deportation.

These are that he came to the UK before 1973 and lived in the UK for at least five years before the decision to deport him was made.

A national investigation into gangs was announced earlier this year after the government came under increasing criticism.

Ahmed was jailed for 30 rapes after he and his gang groomed girls in Rochdale (pictured)

The Home Office said Ahmed’s crimes were ‘appalling’ and he will be subject to strict licensing conditions after he is released from prison.

He will initially need to live in supervised accommodation 24/7 and will be subject to an ‘exclusion zone’ based in Rochdale.

Ahmed was sentenced to 19 years in prison at Liverpool Crown Court in 2012, as one of nine men convicted of crimes against five girls in the Rochdale grooming gang.

Police said up to 50 girls may have been victims of the gang, and many of them came from ‘chaotic’, ‘council’ backgrounds.

Judge Gerald Clifton said the victims were treated ‘as if they were worthless and disrespected’ because they were not part of the gang’s community or religion.

Greater Manchester Police said at the time there was no ‘racial or cultural’ element to the crimes.

A later report revealed that despite many concerns being raised, police failed to act. It was stated that there had been ‘many serious failures’ by the police and local authorities.