Pakistani Grooming Gang Rapists Should Be Deported as a ‘Matter of Urgency’ Says MP

rochdale grooming gang
Greater Manchester Police
Kurt Zindulka

Three Pakistani grooming gang members should be deported as a “matter of urgency” said a local MP, after it was revealed that they remain at large in the town in which they preyed on young white girls.

The Member of Parliament for Heywood and Middleton, Chris Clarkson, wrote to Home Secretary Priti Patel, calling on the Home Office to deport Qari Abdul Rauf, Abdul Aziz, and Adil Khan — three men that were convicted of a series of sexual abuse charges in connection with the Rochdale grooming gang scandal.

“I am sure you will recognise the obvious distress and serious concern that this raises in my constituency and the wider community and share my disgust that these people have been allowed to stay not just in this country, but in the community whose trust they so wickedly abused,” Clarkson said in comments quoted by Rochdale Online.

“Please could I ask you, as a matter of urgency, to see what steps can be taken to remove these individuals from our country and give decent, law-abiding people in Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale confidence that their justice system is working for them,” he added.

The three predators held dual citizenship in Pakistan and the United Kingdom, but had their British citizenship revoked following their convictions despite after a series of taxpayer-funded appeals against the move — clearing the way for them to be deported from the country.

Despite promises from then-Home Secretary Theresa May and her left-liberal successor Amber Rudd that the Pakistani men would be deported, however, there are now no indications that the government has made any efforts to follow through, leaving them free to again roam the streets of Rochdale — where they occasionally run into their victims.

One of the victims of the grooming gang reported seeing Adil Khan in a Rochdale supermarket.

Khan was sentenced to only eight years in prison for his heinous crimes, and was released years early on licence automatically, in line with Britain’s weak criminal justice legislation.

“Oh my God, he’s been in Asda. I’ve never been so scared in all my life. I feel like my heart just stopped beating,” the victim reportedly told a friend.

“She walked into an aisle and was face-to-face with him. He had a seven or eight-year-old child with him. How can he have a child in his care? She just left her trolley and ran out in tears and called me,” said Maggie Oliver, the detective-turned-whistleblower who shed light on police failures to investigate primarily Muslim, Pakistani-heritage grooming gangs over fears that they would be accused of “racism”.

On February 20th the MP for Rochdale, Tony Lloyd, wrote to Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, informing him that there are “strong rumours… that some of these men are either living in or sometimes visit Rochdale, and that on at least one occasion a victim has come into contact with their former abuser.”

Mr Loyd demanded that the government rectify the “frankly deplorable” situation.

Justice Secretary Buckland replied: “I do very much appreciate how distressing it will have been for the victims of these appalling offences to see or hear of the offenders living back in their area. Under current legislation, the powers of the National Probation Service cease when the sentence ends, and this is the case for a number of those who were convicted for the offences in Rochdale.”

Buckland gave no indication that Boris Johnson’s government has any plans to amend the relevant legislation so predators cannot return to the communities where they abused their victims.

Follow Kurt on Twitter at @KurtZindulka

 

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