Rochdale Grooming Ringleader Freed as Ministers Pursue Deportation
Shabir Ahmed, the ringleader of the Rochdale grooming gang, was released from prison after serving 14 years of a 22-year sentence for the rape and sexual abuse of young girls, as ministers said they were “exploring every option” to deport him. The Government is in talks with Pakistan and examining changes to a 1971 law to make removal possible, and the Home Secretary has been asked to review the case. One victim said she learned of his release from the media.
Ahmed’s 2012 conviction was the centrepiece of the scandal that forced group-based child sexual exploitation onto the national agenda, and his release lands in the middle of a leadership transition — the deportation question, and grooming-gangs politics generally, now pass to the incoming Burnham government. Removal has been blocked for years because Ahmed contests his Pakistani citizenship, which is why ministers are contemplating the extraordinary step of amending decades-old nationality law. Reports of vigilante activity on the streets underline how combustible the issue remains. Watch for his licence conditions, the outcome of the Pakistan talks, and whether legislation is actually brought forward.