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  "path": "/news/shabir-ahmed-grooming-gang-ringleader-walks-free-dodging-deportation-decade-rape",
  "publishedAt": "2026-07-02T11:43:15.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.gbnews.com",
  "tags": [
    "Rochdale rape gang ringleader cannot be deported due to loophole as paedophile set for release",
    "Migrant family handed £250k new-build say house is ‘no good for us’ as they demand to be moved",
    "Shabana Mahmood bans asylum seekers from being housed near schools and nurseries",
    "The GB News Editorial Charter"
  ],
  "textContent": "\n\n\nThe ringleader of the notorious Rochdale grooming gang has walked free from prison today after being sentenced to serve a 19-year sentence for the rape and sexual abuse of young girls.\n\nShabir Ahmed, 73, was among nine men in the Rochdale grooming gang trial convicted of a decade of offences against five girls but is now returning to Britain's streets after avoiding deportation due to a legal loophole.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nAhmed once held dual British-Pakistani citizenship, but was stripped of the former following his 2012 conviction, alongside two other gang members, Qari Abdul Rauf and Adil Khan.\n\nThe criminal dodged deportation back to Pakistan due to provisions under the Immigration Act 1971 – which protects arrivals to the UK prior to 1973, and who have lived here for at least five years.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nTRENDING\n\nStories\n\nVideos\n\nYour Say\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nGB News understands Ahmed left prison earlier today and is now in secure accommodation equipped with a GPS electronically monitored tag.\n\nThe Home Office said Ahmed's crimes were \"appalling\" and insisted that he would be subject to stringent licence conditions upon his release from prison.\n\nThe Rochdale grooming gang scandal saw girls as young as 12 dosed with alcohol and drugs before being raped above takeaway restaurants in the Heywood area of the town.\n\nAhmed was convicted at Liverpool Crown Court in August 2012 of two rapes, aiding and abetting rape, sexual assault and trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nDuring his trial, the jury was told that Ahmed had treated his particular victim as a \"possession\", using her for his own sexual gratification and that the girl had been abused on \"an almost weekly basis\".\n\nCritics have argued the 1971 legislation that protected Ahmed should be overruled, including Paul Waugh, Labour MP for Rochdale, who said: \"This depraved paedophile should have been deported to Pakistan years ago.\n\n\"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.\"\n\n### LATEST DEVELOPMENTS\n\n\n\n\n  * Rochdale rape gang ringleader cannot be deported due to loophole as paedophile set for release\n  * Migrant family handed £250k new-build say house is ‘no good for us’ as they demand to be moved\n  * Shabana Mahmood bans asylum seekers from being housed near schools and nurseries\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nResponding to criticism of injustice for Ahmed's victims, Sir Keir Starmer has today asked Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to “consider what can be done” to deport Ahmed from the UK, describing his case as “particularly heinous”.\n\nIn a statement, No10 said: “We are absolutely clear that where foreign nationals commit offences in the UK we will do everything in our power to remove them.”\n\nFollowing suit, likely next Prime Minister Andy Burnham also called for senior ministers to “review all possible options” for his deportation.\n\nThe case united the Commons, with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch also pledging that her party would attempt to amend the Government’s Immigration and Asylum Bill “to close the loophole so that this man can be deported immediately”.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nVictims of the Rochdale grooming gang have also shared their fears about Ahmed’s release.\n\nOne, identified only as “Ruby”, is being supported by The Maggie Oliver Foundation - set up by ex-police detective turned whistleblower over grooming gangs, Ms Oliver.\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\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nIn a statement issued through the foundation, Ruby said victims of abuse had been given “false promises” and left to “fend for themselves” through a lack of support from authorities, and called for a change in the law to get grooming gang members deported.\n\nAhmed will not be permitted to return to his last known address on Windsor Avenue in Oldham, and is subject to an “exclusion zone” centred on Rochdale.\n\nThe Home Office previously stated the convicted paedophile will be placed on the sex offenders' register for life, ordered to stay away from his victims and banned from contacting any child or young person.\n\nA spokesman said: \"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###\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n**Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter**",
  "title": "Grooming gang ringleader jailed for decade-long rape walks free from prison after dodging deportation"
}