Rochdale grooming gang ringleader jailed after safeguarding failures exposed

Shabir Ahmed, known as “Daddy” by his victims, was jailed for a total of 22 years in August 2012. A Greater Manchester review published on 15 January 2024 found compelling evidence of organised sexual exploitation of children from 2004 to 2012 and repeated failures by statutory agencies to respond.

He had already received a 19-year sentence in May 2012 after an 11-week trial at Liverpool Crown Court, where he was the ringleader of a child sex exploitation ring of nine men targeting vulnerable girls in Rochdale and Oldham. In a separate August sentencing, Ahmed was handed an additional prison term to run concurrently after being convicted of 30 specimen counts of child rape.

The nine men received jail terms ranging from four to 19 years, with a total of 77 years across the group. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority review published on 15 January 2024 said the emerging threat was not addressed between 2004 and 2007, despite growing signs that children were being targeted.

In 2007, the Crisis Intervention Team alerted Greater Manchester Police and Rochdale Council to an alleged organised crime group using children in child sexual exploitation and Class A drug dealing. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority review put the number of children believed to have been sexually exploited by that gang at at least 11. By the first investigation, from August 2008 to July 2009, authorities had identified widespread sexual exploitation by at least 30 adult perpetrators.

Baroness Casey of Blackstock’s National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse was commissioned by the Prime Minister and Home Secretary in January 2025 and formally launched in February 2025. The long tail of appeals and deportation proceedings involving members of the same Rochdale gang has extended the case beyond the original prison terms.