Andy Burnham has vowed that if he becomes prime minister, “nothing is off the table” to deport Shabir Ahmed, the leader of the Rochdale grooming gang, who is set to be released from prison on July 2. Ahmed, 73, who wanted to be known as “Daddy” to his victims, has served 14 years of a 19-year sentence for multiple rape and sexual offences against young girls. His victims are living in fear after being told Ahmed cannot be deported to Pakistan, where he was born, due to the Immigration Act 1971, even though he has already been stripped of British citizenship.
Burnham demands action from Home and Foreign Secretaries
The Labour leader-in-waiting said he wanted to see Ahmed removed from the country and would ask senior Government ministers to find a way to deport him. “Like everyone, I want this vile criminal out of the country. Victims must come first,” Burnham wrote on social media platform X. He added: “I will ask the Home and Foreign Secretaries to review all possible options – and they should consider nothing is off the table.” In 2022, when he was mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham called on the then-Tory government “to do everything within… the government’s power” to deport grooming gang members.
Victims share fears and call for legal change
Victims have shared their fears about Ahmed’s release. One, identified only as “Ruby”, who is supported by The Maggie Oliver Foundation, said: “I’m scared for my safety and my kids’ safety. The main ringleader is getting out of prison, who is well known in Rochdale, Oldham and Middleton, so even if he’s not in that area, he still knows people and has a chance to talk to people from that area and that makes me unsafe.” Ruby said victims had been given “false promises” and left to “fend for themselves” through a lack of support from the authorities, and called for a change in the law to get grooming gang members deported.
Billy Howarth, from Parents Against Grooming UK in Rochdale, said another victim had given him a statement about the release. She said: “The pending/recent release of Shabir Ahmed from prison has had a profound and debilitating impact on my life. I live in a constant state of hypervigilance, fearing for my physical safety every time I leave my home. This fear has caused severe anxiety, disrupted my sleep, and forced me to drastically alter my daily routines and social life simply to avoid a potential confrontation. The psychological toll is exhausting, and I feel unable to live freely or safely while this individual poses an unmonitored risk to my wellbeing.”
Legal obstacles to deportation under 1971 Act
Documents published online, apparently from the Probation Service to one of Ahmed’s victims, state he will be released on July 2 and cannot be deported back to Pakistan due to provisions in the Immigration Act 1971. These provisions bar removal if the individual arrived in the UK before 1973 and has lived in the UK for at least five years before deportation was considered. The failure to deport multiple men with dual nationality convicted of serious child sex offences in grooming gangs has caused deep anger in many communities and heaped pressure on politicians.
Local leaders and authorities respond
Neil Emmott, the leader of Rochdale council, said he was very concerned about how the “deeply troubling” news of Ahmed’s release would affect the survivors still living in the Greater Manchester town. He said: “I hope that the reports that he will not be allowed into our borough are accurate and that we never see him on our streets again. If he is seen in our borough, I will demand that he is sent back to prison immediately. As far as I'm concerned, they should have locked him up and thrown away the key.” A national inquiry into grooming gangs was announced earlier this year after the Government came under increasing criticism.
Ahmed is reportedly being held at HMP Leeds and it is understood he will be released on licence with terms that he must initially live at accommodation which is staffed 24 hours, so will not return to his last known address on Windsor Avenue in Oldham and is subject to an “exclusion zone” centred on Rochdale. For two years from early 2008, girls as young as 12 were plied with alcohol and drugs, gang-raped in rooms above takeaway shops and ferried to different flats in taxis where cash was paid to use the girls for sex. Ahmed had worked as a taxi driver but was also employed by Oldham Council as a benefits rights worker and seconded to the Oldham Pakistani Community Centre.
Ahmed’s trial and similar cases
At his trial, Ahmed called the judge a “racist bastard” and took his case to the European Court of Human Rights, claiming he did not get a fair trial. He was jailed for 19 years in 2012 at Liverpool Crown Court, one of nine men in the Rochdale grooming gang trial convicted of offences against five girls. Police said the victims were from “chaotic council estate backgrounds” and as many as 50 girls could have been victims of the gang. Judge Gerald Clifton said victims were treated “as though they were worthless and beyond any respect” 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 report later found police did not act despite multiple concerns being raised, citing “serious multiple failures” by police and local authorities.
Ahmed’s case follows a similar legal battle by two other gang members, Qari Abdul Rauf and Adil Khan. Both were stripped of their British citizenship in 2022, 10 years after their convictions, after fighting a long legal battle which went all the way to the Court of Appeal. Both invoked their human rights under article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to a private and family life, to avoid deportation.
Home Office outlines release conditions
A spokeswoman for the Home Office said on Tuesday: “Our thoughts are first and foremost with the victims of these appalling crimes. On his release he will be on the sex offenders 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.”
