Victims of the Rochdale grooming and child sexual abuse case 'have been forgotten' as two convicted men battle deportation, civic leaders in Manchester have said. And a top abuse lawyer who acted for one of the young girls has said the situation shames the UK legal system, with a 'totally unacceptable situation' of victims living in constant fear of bumping into their abusers in the street.
Richard Scorer, head of abuse law at Slater and Gordon, said: "This case has dragged out for years, with these monsters trying to thwart deportation at every turn, including by renouncing their Pakistani citizenship. All the while, their many victims, who suffered appalling abuse, have had to live with the constant fear of encountering them again.
"This is a totally unacceptable situation which reflects very badly on our legal system, and it cannot be allowed to continue."
For 14 long years, the horrific crimes have cast a long shadow on the town and beyond, with the lives of vulnerable young girls left irreparably damaged. Despite the case prompting national debate and policing changes the shadows continue to lengthen as some of those convicted fight deportation.
Four of those convicted - the gang's ringleader Shabir Ahmed, known as 'Daddy'; Qari Rauf; Adil Khan and Abdul Aziz, known as 'Master' - launched legal bids against deportation that have lasted years. It emerged this week that Aziz has been allowed to remain in the UK, with legal hearings for Rauf and Khan continuing. Amed remains the only member of the gang behind bars.
In a strongly worded statement the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, and his deputy, Bev Hughes, accused them of using a 'legal loophole' to avoid deportation - and of Priti Patel of keeping them out of the loop over the hearings.
"We are horrified that the ringleaders of child sexual exploitation in Rochdale, who were convicted for their heinous crimes, have used a legal loophole by renouncing their Pakistani nationality to avoid being deported," they said. "We are now in a situation where these men, having lost an appeal to avoid deportation in 2018, might have a chance of never being deported and be allowed to carry on with their lives in the very areas where they carried out their abuse.
"Victims have been forgotten in all this and we are appalled that the Home Secretary, who has had years to do right by them, has so far failed to deport. All her tough talk on deportations rings hollow when it comes to the perpetrators of child abuse. Despite our many representations to her, she failed to inform us that a court hearing challenging the deportation order was on-going. In so doing, she demonstrates how little concern she has for the local community who are understandably upset and angry about what is happening.
"We call on the Home Secretary to do everything within her and the Government's power to get the right outcome for the victims. Justice will finally be seen to be fully served only once these deportations are complete and only then will the community be able to begin to heal."
In August, 2008, police were called to a report of a teenage girl smashing the windows of a fast-food takeaway. From that lone incident, clearly sparked by a sense of desperation and anger, a chilling picture of child grooming and sexual abuse on a scale never before seen, and uncovered, in Greater Manchester slowly began to unravel.
Arrested at the scene, the 15-year-old went on to tell police of her life at the mercy of her abusers. Through tears she told of repeated rapes, threatened violence and of being 'shared' among vile paedophiles across the area.
But, despite her testimony, victims and those supporting them faced a battle for recognition and justice. They fought for their voices to be heard when they shouldn't have had to, ultimately resulting in Greater Manchester Police this year accepting the force had 'failed' children in the past.
The now chief constable, Stephen Watson, admitted GMP was 'borderline incompetent' at the time in its handling of the case. Three young victims also received a substantial settlement for damages from the force - and a personal apology - after a legal claim that said from the early 2000s, there was growing evidence from multiple allegations that gangs of predominantly Asian men were grooming, trafficking and sexually abusing predominantly white, working-class girls in Rochdale.
A nine-strong gang of Asian men were convicted of sex offences against girls in 2012. For two years from early 2008, girls as young as 12 were plied with alcohol and drugs and gang-raped in rooms above takeaway shops and ferried to different flats in taxis, where cash was paid to abuse them.
Police said as many as 47 girls were groomed. But a failure to deport any of the grooming gang members has led to anger in Rochdale, where victims were living alongside their tormentors, and has heaped public criticism on a number of home secretaries.
The Manchester Evening News takes a look at the case and what has happened to gang members since they were jailed.
Shabir Ahmed:
Ahmed - who led the grooming and abuse gang - urged his victims to call him 'Daddy'. It has emerged since his trial that he was employed by Oldham Council as a welfare rights officer and seconded to the Oldham Pakistani Community Centre in the early 2000s.
But, despite multiple concerns being raised about him and his arrest for the sexual assault of children, police failed to tell his employers, according to the recently published report into child abuse in Oldham. "If this had happened, it may have potentially avoided the tragic abuse of other children…", the report stated, citing 'serious multiple failures' by both GMP and the local authority.
The evil predator is serving a 22-year jail term and, it's understood, he's fighting from behind bars efforts to deport him back to his native Pakistan. He was jailed for 19 years over the scandal, then handed an extra three years for repeatedly raping a girl after another trial.
In 2017, he was then found guilty of repeatedly stamping on an elderly inmate's face and head following a row about a terror attack. A court heard flew into a rage when he heard another prisoner say the Brussels bombers should be 'eradicated' on the morning of the suicide bombings in Belgium which left 32 victims dead and 340 injured. A judge sentenced Ahmed to a further 12 months in prison on top of the jail term he is already serving.
Ahmed, a former taxi driver, was described as the 'ringleader' of the nine-strong group and found guilty of exploiting girls as young as 13 at Tasty Bites and another takeaway in Heywood from 2007. He not only committed rape but 'shared' one of the victims with other men at parties across the north, a court heard.
He was convicted of two counts of rape, one sex assault, trafficking and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child. He led the early part of the grooming plot and raped the prosecution's main witness as she sobbed. Ahmed, told her: "Please don't cry – I love you."
He bought her alcohol and ferried her to other men in return for cash, telling her girls could have sex from the age of 11 'in my country'. Ahmed also admitted a year-long sexual relationship with another young girl. He tried to dismiss the prosecution as 'white lies', even launching foul-mouthed tirades against the 'racist' judge and jury.
In court, he dramatically removed his shirt and pulled out a handful of his own chest hair in a bizarre attempt to show the jury that he sheds so much hair he would have left some at the scene of his crime. He is appealing against a decision to strip him of UK citizenship.
Qari Abdul Rauf:
Taxi driver and Muslim preacher Abdul Rauf, now 52, from Rochdale, was convicted of trafficking and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child. Like some of his co-defendants, he opted to 'affirm' that he would tell the truth – rather than swear on the Koran in court. The father-of five worked as a qari, reading the Koran for the congregation at Rochdale’s Bilal mosque.
He claimed to be deeply religious and insisted in court that he only left the post to earn a better wage for his growing family.
In fact, he was sacked by the mosque because of poor time-keeping. Mosque leaders denied he had been removed because of allegations he had abused children. In court, he was constantly praying under his breath in the dock, to the annoyance of his co-defendants, one of whom punched him.
At a recent Immigration Tribunal, where Rauf together with Adil Khan is appealing against deportation, it emerged he had renounced his Pakistani citizenship.
His legal team said the law demands consistency of treatment and although Rauf could regain his Pakistani nationality simply by signing a form, he refuses to do so because he does not want to be deported. His lawyers also said deportation would be a breach under articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, arising out of their individual circumstances relating to their private and family life.
He wept when he admitted having sex with a girl in his VW Sharan taxi. It had been a 'big mistake', he said, claiming the girl looked 'maybe 30'. Another girl, the prosecution's main witness, told the jury she had sex with Rauf 20 or 30 times. Under cross-examination he appeared to feign a collapse. He was jailed for six years after being convicted of trafficking and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child. There have been no further convictions in relation to Rauf.
Rauf was pictured shopping in Rochdale last year. He was released in November 2014 after serving two years and six months of his sentence.
Adil Khan:
Taxi driver Adil Khan, now 51, from Rochdale, was convicted of trafficking and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child. He betrayed his wife by starting a sexual relationship with a girl – and just a few weeks after the birth of his first child.
The girl thought the 42-year-old was her boyfriend, telling the jurors he had treated her well. He had come to Rochdale from Kashmir with his wife in 1997. Known as Billy by the girls, he went to the gang's sex parties although he claimed only to be playing cards or watching cricket.
He impregnated one girl, refusing to accept the child was his until a DNA test was done.
He told the court: "They weren't girls – they were women." The court heard how he had made the girl pregnant but she had an abortion. He was jailed for eight years after he was convicted of conspiracy and trafficking - released on licence after four years.
At the Immigration Tribunal, Khan referred to the 'allegations' made against him and described it as a “laughing matter”.
Speaking through a Miripuri translator he said: "I'm today denying it, and I was denying it at the time as well and in the future, never will such a thing happen. I understand the racial basis and this is the real reason as well. The Home Office falsely levelled an allegation against me."
Khan also told the judge that he should not be deported because his son needs a role model - and complained about having no rights in the UK.
Abdul Aziz:
Taxi driver Abdul Aziz, 51, from Rochdale, was cleared of two counts of rape but was convicted of trafficking and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child. He ferried girls as far as Leeds and Bradford and was paid by the stream of men who abused them, getting £40 for each introduction.
Known by the gang as 'Master', the married father-of-three kept a stash of condoms in his taxi.
It emerged at the Immigration Tribunal that Aziz was told by the Home Office that despite losing an appeal depriving him of UK citizenship, the first step before deportation to Pakistan, he would not in fact lose his citizenship and was allowed to remain in the UK.
Aziz had renounced his Pakistani citizenship on July 13, 2018, six years after he was jailed, but just days before the Court of Appeal ruled he could be deprived of his UK citizenship.
Rochdale MP Tony Lloyd, speaking to the BBC this week, said he felt 'misled' and 'let down' by Home Secretary Priti Patel, revealing she told him she would 'do everything possible' to deport the men, but didn't tell him at the time about the situation surrounding Aziz.
The trial heard Aziz struck up a business relationship with the young girl that the crown said was part of the plot – she would find him new girls and he would take them to parties. He was jailed for nine years after he was convicted of trafficking and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child.
Aziz, Khan and Rauf battles against deportation have involved multiple legal challenges and appeals, spanning several years. Together with Ahmed, it's understood they were the only convicted ones at risk of being deported back to Pakistan, because they have dual UK-Pakistani citizenship.
Five others convicted alongside them are understood to have been released, subject to licencing conditions. The length of sentences they received at the time means their convictions will never be 'spent', which means they must disclose them if required to, and that they will show up in criminal record checks for life. Details of their cases are listed below.
Mohammed Sajid
Cash-and-carry worker Mohammed Sajid, from Rochdale, was found guilty of rape, trafficking and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child. The married father, then 35, abused a string of girls at a flat in Rochdale. He came to the UK from the same village in Pakistan as co-defendant Abdul Aziz. Sajid lived in a flat off Whitworth Street used for scores of sex parties. Neighbours had noticed the stream of taxis parking up outside the property late into the night.
He had sex with a girl over a two-year period, later claiming thought she was at least 17. He also raped another girl, creeping into bed while she was sleeping. He was jailed for 12 years after he was convicted of conspiracy, sexual activity with a child, rape and trafficking. Earlier in the trial the jury was ordered to find him not guilty of one rape charge.
Mohammed Amin:
Taxi driver Mohammed Amin, from Rochdale, was found guilty of sex assaults and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child.
He was known as Car Zero and drove a Toyota Lucida. He claimed never to have met the girl he sexually assaulted. He claimed to be tee-total but a jury heard how he was regularly seen drinking beer in his taxi.
He worked for Eagle Taxis and was a regular at sex parties at the flat off Whitworth Street in Rochdale, bringing a bottle of vodka with him and a friend who forced himself on one of the girls. He was jailed for five years.
Abdul Qayyum:
Married father-of-two Abdul Qayyum, from Rochdale, was convicted of conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child. He was regarded as pillar of Rochdale’s Pakistani community, first working as a taxi driver and then setting up his own vehicle recovery business from his home.
Two local councillors even wrote references for the jury, praising his hard work and how he had ‘fully adopted the British way of life’. The victims knew him as Tiger. He was jailed for five years after he was convicted of conspiracy.
Kabeer Hassan:
Kabeer Hassan, 25, from Oldham, was convicted of rape and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child. He was the youngest member of the gang and worked at the Balti House in Heywood – where he raped a girl.
The girl was handed to him as a 'treat', according to the prosecution.
In court, Hassan, who also worked at a fruit and veg stall in Oldham, tried to paint himself as a shocked onlooker trying to cope with streams of abusive and drunken teenagers. Some of them, he said, were 'aggressive and racist'. Some of the girls who visited the shop offered him sex for money, he told the court.
He claimed to have been shocked at the pornographic DVDs other staff put on the upstairs TV for the stream of visiting girls. He was jailed for nine years after he was convicted of rape and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child.
Hamid Safi:
Illegal immigrant Hamid Safi, from Rochdale, was found not guilty of two counts of rape but convicted of trafficking and conspiracy. The 22-year-old, from Afghanistan, hid under a lorry to smuggle himself into Britain after travelling through Turkey and Iran.
He had been captured in Birmingham in November, 2008, but released in March 2009. He claimed in court he self-harmed while he was in the detention centre to thwart efforts to deport him. He was jailed for four years after he was convicted of trafficking and conspiracy. He was also found not guilty of two counts of rape.
READ NEXT:
