{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "bskyPostRef": {
    "cid": "bafyreifrcdpqooedyxnmn5lhup2gr6rfdz5ydm6jqnfmjcbpoohbwnapha",
    "uri": "at://did:plc:b7afdzqsmwksxypciqnplglk/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpoakmye4de2"
  },
  "coverImage": {
    "$type": "blob",
    "ref": {
      "$link": "bafkreicngu3xrxkbfoad56qw2ynrwvlwozglupf3r5kstscw5i4rdccxsi"
    },
    "mimeType": "image/png",
    "size": 288678
  },
  "path": "/2026/07/02/my-rapist-released-early-like-rochdale-gang-leader-showed-house-29015024/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-07-02T14:16:44.000Z",
  "site": "https://metro.co.uk",
  "tags": [
    "News",
    "UK",
    "Crime News",
    "Rochdale",
    "Leeds",
    "News Updates",
    "Breaking News",
    "Pakistan",
    "Government",
    "Manchester",
    "Home Office",
    "check our news page",
    "Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google\nAdd as preferred source"
  ],
  "textContent": "Asghar Bostan (right) was released early like Shabir Ahmed (left)\n\nA grooming gang survivor whose rapist was released early from prison has said the ‘fear is real’ after Rochdale rape leader Shabir Ahmed walked free today.\n\nElizabeth Harper’s rapist Asghar Bostan was spotted near her house in Rotherham in 2024 after he was released early on parole.\n\nShe is speaking out after the leader of the Rochdale grooming gang, Shabir Ahmed, was freed from HMP Leeds today.\n\nAhmed, 73, who wanted to be known as ‘Daddy’ to his victims, has served 14 years in jail for multiple rape and sexual offences against young girls.\n\nThe terms of Ahmed’s release are understood to be that he must initially live in secure accommodation and cannot enter an ‘exclusion zone’ centred on Rochdale.\n\n##  Sign up for all of the latest stories\n\nStart your day informed with Metro's **News Updates** newsletter or get **Breaking News** alerts the moment it happens.\n\nShabir Ahmed, the ringleader of a Rochdale child, walked free from prison today(Picture: PA)\n\nHis victims say they are still living in fear after being told Ahmed cannot be deported due to a niche law.\n\nElizabeth said Ahmed’s victims had a right to be scared after what had happened to her.\n\nHer rapist Asghar Bostan left prison in August 2022 after he was jailed for rape in 2018.\n\nJust like Ahmed’s, Elizabeth says Bostan’s licence conditions meant he could not return to Rotherham.\n\nHowever in January 2024, Bostan was spotted in the town by her friend less than a mile away from her home.\n\nBostan was then arrested and recalled to a category B prison for breaching his parole conditions.\n\nElizabeth, who said she felt ‘sick’ at the time, said: ‘The fear is real, and it does come true sometimes.’\n\nAsked about the release of Shabir Ahmed, Elizabeth told **Metro** : ‘It just goes to show how the system really isn’t working.\n\n‘We are talking about an individual who organised a gang. He was the top of the hierarchy.\n\n‘I just feel like again we are seeing the poor victims are at the bottom of the pile.’\n\nAsghar Bostan was also released early (Picture: National crime agency)\n\nLawmakers have admitted that the Immigration Act 1971 meant he could not be deported to Pakistan, where he was born, even though he has already been stripped of British citizenship\n\nElizabeth said it was ‘absolutely disgusting’ that Ahmed could not be removed from the UK.\n\nThe survivor said: ‘These loopholes keep appearing every time it is about grooming gangs. The loopholes need to be closed.’\n\nAndy Burnham has said that if he becomes prime minister ‘nothing is off the table’ to deport Ahmed.\n\nThe Labour leader-in-waiting said he wanted to see the grooming gangs ringleader removed from the country, and would ask senior Government ministers to find a way to deport him.\n\n‘Like everyone, I want this vile criminal out of the country. Victims must come first,’ he wrote on X.\n\nHe added: ‘I will ask the Home and Foreign Secretaries to review all possible options – and they should consider nothing is off the table.’\n\nOther victims have shared their fears about Ahmed’s release.\n\nOne, identified only as ‘Ruby’, is being supported by The Maggie Oliver Foundation, set up by Ms Oliver, an ex-police detective turned whistleblower over grooming gangs.\n\nRuby said: ‘I’m scared for my safety and my kids’ safety.\n\n‘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.’\n\nRuby said victims of abuse 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.\n\nNeil 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.\n\nHe 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.’\n\nAhmed 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.\n\nAt 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.\n\nHe 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.\n\nPolice said the victims were from ‘chaotic council estate backgrounds and as many as 50 girls could have been victims of the gang.\n\nJudge 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.\n\nA spokeswoman for the Home Office said on Tuesday: ‘Our thoughts are first and foremost with the victims of these appalling crimes.\n\n‘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.\n\n‘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.’\n\n******Get in touch with our news team by emailing us atwebnews@metro.co.uk.******\n\n**For more stories like this,** check our news page.\n\nComment now Comments \nAdd Metro as a Preferred Source on Google\nAdd as preferred source\n",
  "title": "‘My rapist was released early like Rochdale gang leader – then he showed up at my house’"
}