Grooming victims heard of abuser's release on social media, MP says

Some survivors of a Rochdale grooming gang discovered from social media that its ringleader was set to be released from prison, an MP has said.

Shabir Ahmed, 73, will be released from prison in days, but cannot be deported due to a 55-year-old law.

Labour MP Jim McMahon said victims whose cases had not made it to court were not contacted by "any part of the system" and initially did not know whether Ahmed would be able to return to their home towns.

The Home Office has been approached for comment.

• Rochdale grooming: 'I was raped more than 100 times from age 12'

The Home Office has confirmed that Ahmed will be subject to strict licence conditions on his release, including exclusion zones, an electronically monitored curfew and the requirements of the sex offenders register.

McMahon, who represents Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton, said Ahmed was a "very dangerous individual" who posed a "real, present danger".

He added: "It's now been confirmed that he will not be allowed to return to either Oldham or Rochdale, but nevertheless that period has really been quite traumatic for many people."

"Communication has got to be better," McMahon said.

"Victims and survivors deserve better than finding out on social media that this person is being released and potentially being released into their community."

Ahmed had dual British and Pakistani citizenship when he was convicted of multiple child sexual offences, including rape, and jailed for 22 years in 2012.

The court heard girls as young as 12 were plied with alcohol and drugs, gang-raped in rooms above takeaway shops and ferried to different flats in taxis where cash was paid to use the girls for sex.

Ahmed was described in court as a "violent, hypocritical bully".

At his trial, he called the judge a "racist" and took his case to the European Court of Human Rights, claiming he had not received a fair trial.

His British citizenship was later stripped after the government took legal action.

However on Tuesday it was revealed that the Immigration Act 1971 meant the Home Office was barred from ordering his removal to Pakistan.

The law says this is because Ahmed arrived in the UK before 1973 and had lived in the country for at least five years before his deportation was considered.

Campaigner and former detective Maggie Oliver told BBC Newsnight that "outraged" victims had been told their abusers would be deported after their sentences.

Oliver said one victim, whose name has been changed to as Ruby to preserve her legal right to anonymity, had previously bumped into another member of the gang in an Asda supermarket not knowing he had been released from prison.

"She lives with the fear that that might happen again, but she's speaking on behalf of all victims and survivors who feel that they are always an afterthought," Oliver said.

She said Ruby was particularly distressed by Ahmed's release because the man she saw in the shops - Adil Khan - had later fled the country despite being under strict licence conditions.

Oliver said: "She now is living with the fear that Shabir Ahmed, who is also under scrutiny, might escape from where he has been scrutinized and turn up on her doorstep or have some of his associates come after her as well.

"This is a fear that victims live with every day and they don't feel that the authorities are taking their concerns seriously."

Greater Manchester Police and Rochdale Council apologised after an external review, published in 2024, revealed girls in Rochdale were "left at the mercy" of paedophile grooming gangs for years because of failings by senior police and council bosses.

Ruby has previously spoken to the BBC about her experiences, which included being groomed by older men and plied with alcohol before being gang-raped.

Over the next four years, she said, she was raped by men "from all over the country", and had an abortion when she was 13.

In a statement, Ruby said: "I was 12 years old when this started and [I am] still getting failed.

"Twenty years on, things need to change.

"There has been no support for the victims of the abused, the offender is being released from prison in less than two days."

McMahon said the protections for Commonwealth citizens set out in the 1971 law meant the government had no power to deport Ahmed.

"Our strong view is that was designed for decent law-abiding citizens who contribute to our country and deserve that protection - surely not for child rapists," he said.

McMahon also called for sentencing law to be amended so in future child rapists are excluded from schemes were inmates can be released early if they have behaved while in prison.

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