UK to change law so ringleader of Rochdale grooming gang can be deported

The home secretary will change the law so the freed ringleader of a Rochdale grooming gang can be deported, the BBC has been told.

As first reported by the Telegraph, Shabana Mahmood is expected to set out on Monday how she plans to amend the 1971 Immigration Act which currently stops Shabir Ahmed being removed from the UK.

Ahmed, 73, was jailed for 22 years in August 2012 for a number of child sexual offences including rape. He was released on licence last week.

Known to his victims as "Daddy", Ahmed had dual British-Pakistani citizenship but was stripped of the former following his 2012 conviction.

At the time of his release, his victims were told he could not be deported to Pakistan due to the 55-year-old Immigration Act, which bars the removal of any Commonwealth citizen who arrived in the UK before 1973 and had been in the country for five years.

After leaving prison, Ahmed was sent to 24-hour staffed accommodation and fitted with a GPS electronically monitored tag.

He is subject to strict licence conditions following his release, the Home Office said, including exclusion zones, an electronically monitored curfew and the requirements of the sex offenders register.

Some of his victims said they were "frightened" by his release, and they felt "unsafe".

While he is in the UK, the government has said any breach of Ahmed's strict licence conditions would result in him being immediately returned to prison.

Chris Philp, the Conservative shadow home secretary, has been urging the government to back an amendment to the Immigration and Asylum Bill that would allow Ahmed to be deported.

This week, Home Office minister Alex Norris told MPs the government would not give up in its efforts to deport Ahmed for his "heinous" crimes.

It is not known how long it would take to change the law but one government source suggested it could potentially be up to a year.

It is also understood there is currently no agreement in place with Pakistan to allow the UK to return Ahmed there.

Ahmed was one of nine men from Rochdale and Oldham who were found guilty of exploiting girls as young as 13 at two takeaway restaurants in the Heywood area of Rochdale.

Billy Howarth, a campaigner and activist for survivors of grooming, said he had been supporting two of the victims since 2014 and the release of this gang member had "hit home harder than the rest".

"They believe he is the most evil man they know," he said last week. "Both girls are in crisis at the moment.

"They are frightened for their lives at this moment in time."