One of Britain’s most notorious child sex offenders, Shabir Ahmed, 73, has been released from prison on July 2, 2026, after serving part of his sentence, reigniting public outrage over the UK’s handling of the grooming gangs scandal.
The ringleader of the Rochdale grooming gang was released on licence after serving part of a prison sentence imposed in 2012 for multiple child sexual offences, including the rape of girls as young as 12.
He was convicted at Liverpool Crown Court in August 2012 of two rapes, aiding and abetting rape, sexual assault and trafficking for sexual exploitation, and given a 19-year term, later followed by a concurrent 22-year sentence for 30 child rape offences.
Known to his victims as “Daddy”, Ahmed was convicted as the leader of a network that groomed, trafficked and sexually abused vulnerable teenage girls across Rochdale and Oldham in Greater Manchester, northwest England.
Ahmed was one of nine men convicted in the 2012 Rochdale trial; the others were jailed for a combined 174 years, according to Greater Manchester Police.
The Home Office has confirmed he cannot currently be deported because of provisions in the Immigration Act 1971, which protect people who arrived before 1973 and had lived in the country for the qualifying period. Having arrived in Britain from Pakistan before 1973, Ahmed falls within legal protections originally designed to protect long-settled Commonwealth citizens.
He had held dual British-Pakistani citizenship but was deprived of his British citizenship after his conviction, following unsuccessful legal challenges.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has asked home secretary Shabana Mahmood to “consider what can be done” to deport Ahmed, describing the case as “particularly heinous”.
The Conservative Party has vowed to amend immigration legislation to end what it sees as a “legal loophole”. Party leader Kemi Badenoch said the Conservatives would seek to amend the government’s Immigration and Asylum Bill so that Ahmed “can be deported immediately”, while shadow home secretary Chris Philp called for him to be removed to Pakistan.
According to British authorities, Ahmed has been released into a secure, 24-hour staffed residence under strict licence conditions.
He is subject to lifetime registration as a sex offender, electronic GPS monitoring, an exclusion zone covering the Rochdale borough and restrictions on contact with children. Any breach of these conditions would result in his immediate return to prison.
Several victims told British media they felt frightened and abandoned by the decision. One survivor, identified only as “Ruby” and supported by The Maggie Oliver Foundation, said: “I’m scared for my safety and my kids’ safety.” She argued that Ahmed’s local connections continue to pose a threat.
In Rochdale, residents have organised neighbourhood patrols in response to the release. Billy Howarth, co-founder of the group Parents Against Grooming UK, said some victims were too frightened to leave their homes, with police placed on standby.
Over the past two decades, investigations have uncovered organised networks in several English towns where predominantly Pakistani men groomed, trafficked and repeatedly raped vulnerable girls, many of whom were white working-class children.
Reports have concluded that police, local authorities and social services failed to intervene despite mounting evidence, with fears of appearing racist frequently cited as one factor contributing to the inaction.
Oldham grooming gang campaigner Raja Miah, who has spent years investigating grooming gang cases and campaigning for a national inquiry, argues that the emphasis on Ahmed’s deportation risks distracting from what he calls the “wider institutional cover-up”.
In a social media post on X following Ahmed’s release, Miah alleged that previous local reviews commissioned under Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, known as the Assurance Reviews, failed to expose the full extent of institutional failings.
He warned that Burnham, whom some commentators have tipped as a possible future Labour leader and prime minister, should face scrutiny before entering Downing Street and accused Labour figures of resisting a comprehensive examination of his own record.
