Sex abuse gang leader sentenced to a further 22 years

Shabir Ahmed

The ringleader of a gang of Asian men from Rochdale amd Oldham who groomed young white girls for sex was sentenced today at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court to a further term of 22 years.

Shabir Ahmed (59), formerly of Windsor Road, Oldham, was convicted of 30 charges of child rape by a jury at Manchester Crown Court in June.

The court heard he raped and sexually abused one young girl over many years. He was jailed for 19 years in May following an 11–week trial at Liverpool Crown Court that heard he led a child sex exploitation ring of nine men who targeted vulnerable young girls in the Rochdale and Oldham areas.

His sentence will run concurrently with the earlier one.

Judge Mushtaq Khokhar was forced to have Ahmed removed from the dock before passing sentence because he was persistently interrupted by the defendant.

Before his ejection, Ahmed shouted: "It's all lies. It's all concocted by the police."

He then looked over at journalists covering the case and shouted: "What are you looking at?"

The jury was told that Ahmed, of Windsor Road, had treated his victim as a "possession" using her for his own sexual gratification and that the girl had been abused on "an almost weekly basis".

Ahmed was one of the nine men from Rochdale and Oldham who were found guilty of exploiting girls as young as 13 at two takeaway restaurants in Heywood.

He was convicted at Liverpool Crown Court of two rapes, aiding and abetting rape, sexual assault and trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

Speaking after the verdict in June, Det Ch Supt Mary Doyle said Ahmed's victim had "shown phenomenal bravery to come forward".

"We already knew Ahmed was an integral part of the Rochdale grooming case - now we can also say his horrific campaign of abuse began many years ago with the systematic rape of this one victim," she added.