Change law to kick out Rochdale rapist, No 10 urged

[Twiglets1]

Reported in The Telegraph that Labour is facing mounting pressure to change immigration laws immediately so that a child rapist freed from jail can be deported.

Shabir Ahmed, 73, was sentenced to more than 20 years in jail after being convicted of 30 child rape offences as part of the Rochdale grooming gang.

But on Thursday, the Pakistan-born rapist was released after serving 14 years.

Britain stripped him of his citizenship, but cannot currently deport him because of protections granted to Commonwealth immigrants such as Ahmed under the Immigration Act 1971.

On Thursday, Downing Street said the Prime Minister had asked Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, to “consider what can be done” to deport Ahmed, describing his case as “particularly heinous”.

It comes after Andy Burnham, expected to succeed Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister, also vowed to “review all options” to deport the "vile criminal".

The amendment to Ms Mahmood’s immigration bill will propose rewriting the 1971 act to permit the removal of serious criminals such as Ahmed.

However, even if an amendment were to pass, two senior Pakistani government officials told The Telegraph that the country would not accept Ahmed back because he renounced his Pakistani citizenship “several decades ago”.

They added that he posed a danger to Pakistani children.

If their claim is correct, it places Ahmed in the same situation as two other freed Pakistani ringleaders of the Rochdale grooming gang whom Pakistan has refused to take back.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/07/02/deport-foreign-born-child-rapists-demand-labour-mps/

I'm from Rochdale, have female British Pakistani friends and know this is not true but a lot of abuse within family is covered up. I have friends that have suffered in silence because of this

Do you want to house him in your house then?

The rub though, is Pakistan provide vital intelligence in terms of anti terror operations (well they say they do) and are now Trump's buddies in the negotiations with Iran.

They will use leverage like that

He literally shouted that he was from a supreme race at the trial, and suggested all white women deserve to be raped.

He hasn't exactly integrated.

Death penalty or deport - maybe the white people could decide for him in a referendum.

This law needs amending anyway, because it’s a long term problem. Not just this vile man, but plenty of others with criminal offending.

His sentence was pathetic. If ever there was a case for consecutive sentencing, a persistent child rapist is it. He should still be in prison

Morally I agree with you but that is not the case legally in Britain at the moment in most cases. I've been reading up on revoking citizenship and I wonder if he could lose it under this rule - presumably the one used against Shamima Begum.

1. They are sentenced to lose citizenship for committing crimes that the state believes pose a threat to its citizens.

It is our fault he hasn't integrated.

We allowed him not to integrate.

We allowed his first crimes to go unpunished so he became a complete monster.

We failed to give him the sentence he deserved, he should not be out on the streets.

I don't understand how you could square it in your heart and mind to dump him on another country's women, before we even think about how much more vulnerable than us many of those women are.

The comparison with Begum doesn’t stand up because as a pp pointed out she isn’t in the country. For Ahmed to be deported another country has to agree to accept him.

None of us want him. But if he was already in my house I sure as hell wouldn't move him to another woman's house.

Take him to the coast, stick him on a small boat and push him out to sea. Monsters shouldn't have human rights.

While I agree with a lot of what you say, I don't think it's fair to put all the blame on "us" as in British culture and laws etc.

Presumably his family need to take a great deal of responsibility for shaping him. His views as well as actions are completely abhorrent and they are not something he would have picked up from normal British culture.

He's completed the custodial part of his sentence so he's automatically released. the custodial part has ended, the rest is served on licence in the community.

When someone is sentenced in court to custody, the sentence given means they will serve half in custody and half in the community on licence. Unless it's certain specified sentences including some sexual offences and where the sentence is over 4 years. In which case they serve 2/3 in custody.

He was sentenced to 22 and 19 years to run concurrently in 2012. Concurrently means at the same time, consecutively means one after the other.

As his offences were specified sexual offences and his sentences were over 4 years, he had to serve 2/3 of 22 years which is 14 and a half years so hes automatically released. There's no way he could be kept in prison unless he committed minor offences in prison and the prison adjudication system gave him a little extra time (which could only be a few weeks) but he hasn't.

There's no such things as 'time off for good behaviour' in the UK system though people assume it's a thing and that's why it looks like they've been released early but they haven't, it was always their release date. The minute you're sent to prison, the release date is calculated that day and that is the day you're released unless as I say, you had a few weeks added on for having a phone in prison or something.

What's happened here is the judge at his sentencing said he would be deported on his release, not realising there was a loophole.

If the government had some guts, they could threaten to block all visas and financial aid to Pakistan if they don’t take back their criminals and failed asylum applicants.

He can't be deported so if his British citizenship is revoked, what happens to him?

Not necessarily expecting you to know but does anyone know the answer to this?

This is a fundamental misunderstanding about Pakistani grooming gangs.

Men like this have made clear they target white non Muslim girls because they think they are 'sluts'.

They do not target what they see as their own and certainly not in a country that has the death penalty for doing so.

Deport him.

Thank you for the explanation.

So if the judge at his sentencing didn't know he couldn't be deported on his release (why not? Surely it was known at this point that he didn't have dual citizenship with Pakistan), surely a case could be made that the original sentence was wrong and needs to be changed (to a life sentence, preferably).

These have been the most terrible of organised crimes, with gangs operating in 149 areas of the country and our authorities turning a blind eye to it for as long as they could. The BBC is still not reporting on the harrowing details of the current enquiry.
These people should have their assets confiscated and be locked up where they can cause no trouble if they can’t be deported. I would certainly like them to be deported but not sure what happens if Pakistan won’t take them.
You understand why Pakistani women in many communities aren’t allowed out without a male escort, and you rue the day that large numbers of these terrible men were allowed into our country, and the awful , awful establishment and weak people we have that made appearing to be seen as racist a worse option than protecting young girls from awful crimes.

You fundamentally do not understand Pakistani grooming gangs.

They do not just go around hoping to rape any random woman.

They specifically target vulnerable white non-Muslim girls.

So what is your solution then?

Some of the men were were raping children all over the place including their own children on Pitcairn! There was a huge trial.

But no, we can't deport anyone who is born and bred in England, as were their parents because they're rapists.

But we should be kicking out all the rapists born in other countries who we allowed to live here and reap all the benefits of living here and they repaid that humanity, kindness and opportunities by raping our children.

Thank you @KindPinkEagle. That’s very helpful. It’s a shame the judge didn’t have cognisance of the loophole, is there any way he could be returned to prison?

Exactly. They target white women BUT they do not allow their own women out without a male relative - because they know how awfully their men behave when given the opportunity.

Their women are protected, they aren’t allowed out without a related male chaperone.
For very good reason, clearly!

He should have had a longer sentence and then on release if he was still alive, be tagged for the rest of his life with an implanted satellite tracker so his whereabouts are known at all times.

But even though that isn't going to happen, trying to impose him on the women of Pakistan is a disgusting thing to do to those women and I don't understand how women in this country can be proposing it unless their fear of him has turned off every ounce of empathy they possess.

Crikey, do you know how racist you sound? There are plenty of women who go out without chaperones in Islamic countries.