Old law blocks UK deportation of Rochdale grooming gang figure

The Home Office cannot deport Shabir Ahmed before his release on 2 July because the Immigration Act 1971 blocks removal of people who arrived in Britain before 1973 and had lived here for at least five years before deportation was considered. Ahmed, 73, is known to victims as “Daddy” and was stripped of his British citizenship after his 2012 conviction.

Ahmed was jailed for 19 years at Liverpool Crown Court as one of nine men convicted in the Rochdale grooming gang trial, which involved offences against five girls. Police said as many as 50 girls may have been victims. The abuse went on for two years from early 2008, with girls as young as 12 plied with alcohol and drugs, gang-raped in rooms above takeaway shops and ferried by taxi between flats.

His removal is being blocked by the older immigration law because he arrived in the UK before 1973 and had already built up the residence history that triggers the protection. That leaves them unable to act before he is released, even though his licence conditions are expected to include an exclusion zone centred on Rochdale.

A 173-page review published in January 2024 covered 2004 to 2013 and found repeated failures by senior police and council bosses, while also identifying 96 men still posing a possible risk to children, only a proportion of those involved in the abuse. Greater Manchester Police said at the time there was no racial or cultural element to the crimes.

In 2025, the Crown Prosecution Service said seven other men were convicted over related Rochdale abuse between 2001 and 2006, with the abuse starting when the victims were 13. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Deputy Mayor Bev Hughes said victims had been forgotten and urged the Home Secretary to do everything within government power to secure deportations. Rochdale MP Paul Waugh has said people in Rochdale want Ahmed removed and has pressed ministers to amend the law if necessary.

The Home Office set up a statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs in December 2025, chaired by Baroness Anne Longfield.