The ringleader of the notorious Rochdale grooming gang is set to walk free from prison this week – and his victims have been told he cannot be deported. Shabir Ahmed, 73, known to his victims as "Daddy", will be released on Thursday, according to documents reportedly from the Probation Service that were shared online. The Home Office described his crimes as "appalling" and said he would face stringent licence conditions, including living in supervised accommodation 24/7 and being barred from an exclusion zone centred on Rochdale.
Ahmed was the head of a gang that plied girls as young as 12 with alcohol and drugs, gang-raped them in rooms above takeaway shops and ferried them in taxis to flats where cash changed hands for sex. He was convicted in 2012 at Liverpool Crown Court of multiple counts of rape and sexual offences and jailed for 19 years. At his trial, he called the judge a "racist" and later took his case to the European Court of Human Rights, claiming he had not received a fair trial. Judge Gerald Clifton said the victims had been treated "as though they were worthless and beyond any respect" because they were not of the gang's community or religion.
“Rochdale grooming gang ringleader Shabir Ahmed, 73, will be released from prison this week but cannot be deported due to a 1971 immigration law.”
Ahmed had held dual British-Pakistani citizenship but was stripped of his British nationality after his conviction. However, the Home Office cannot deport him to Pakistan because of provisions in the Immigration Act 1971. The law bars removal for anyone who arrived in the UK before 1973 and has lived in the country for at least five years before deportation was considered – a condition Ahmed meets.
In 2022, Andy Burnham called on the then Conservative government "to do everything within [its] power" to deport members of grooming gangs. Paul Waugh, the MP for Rochdale, told The Daily Telegraph: "The people of Rochdale want him booted out of the country and it's simply unacceptable that the government of Pakistan are refusing to take him back. If the Citizenship Act needs to be amended to do that, ministers should look at doing just that."
Police have said as many as 50 girls could have been victims of the gang, many from "chaotic", "council estate" backgrounds. A later report found "serious multiple failures" by police and local authorities, despite concerns being raised repeatedly. Ahmed's release leaves victims facing the reality that the man who orchestrated their abuse will remain on British soil.