Shabir Ahmed, the 73-year-old ringleader of the notorious Rochdale grooming gang known to his victims as 'Daddy', is set to be released from prison on Thursday, July 2, after serving 14 years of a 19-year sentence for multiple rape and sexual offences against young girls. Victims have expressed terror for their safety, and they have been informed that Ahmed, who holds dual Pakistani-British citizenship, cannot be deported despite being stripped of his British citizenship.
Victims speak out in fear
One victim, identified only as “Ruby”, who is being 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 added that victims had been given “false promises” and left to “fend for themselves” due to a lack of support from authorities, and called for a change in the law to deport grooming gang members.
Billy Howarth, from Parents Against Grooming UK (PAG UK) in Rochdale, shared a statement from another victim: “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 well-being.”
Release conditions and legal barriers to deportation
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 to Pakistan due to provisions in the Immigration Act 1971. These provisions bar his removal because he arrived in the UK before 1973 and has lived in the UK for at least five years before his 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.
Ahmed is reportedly being held at HMP Leeds and will be released on licence with terms that he must initially live in 24-hour staffed accommodation, so he will not return to his last known address on Windsor Avenue in Oldham. He is subject to an “exclusion zone” centred on Rochdale. A Home Office spokeswoman said: “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.”
Background of the grooming gang
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. At his trial, Ahmed called the judge a 'racist b*****d' 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.
Political pressure and inquiry
A national inquiry into grooming gangs was announced earlier this year after the Government came under increasing criticism. In 2022, Andy Burnham, then the mayor of Greater Manchester and now likely to replace Sir Keir Starmer as the next prime minister, called on the Tory government “to do everything within… the government’s power” to deport grooming gang members.
