GM Mayor to seek update on deportation of Adil Khan and Qari Abdul Rauf, who still live in Rochdale six years after 2018 Home Office pledge

Mayor Andy Burnham has pledged to request an update regarding the deportation of two paedophiles, following the publication of a review into historic Child Sexual Exploitation in Rochdale.
 

Read more: Damning report finds 48 girls were "seriously failed" by GMP and Rochdale Council in being protected from sexual exploitation from 2004-2012Published: 15 January 2024

Under Operation Span, Adil Khan and Qari Abdul Rauf were jailed in May 2012 for their sickening crimes – and have been spotted in and around Rochdale over the last few years after their release from prison.

Khan was jailed for eight years for conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child and trafficking a child within the UK. Rauf was convicted of conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child and trafficking a child within the UK, was jailed for six years.

They lost a second appeal to avoid being deported in 2022, having originally lost the right to stay in Britain in August 2018 alongside another of the gang [Abdul Aziz], but very little has been forthcoming from the Home Office about when this will happen.

A fourth member of the group, Shabir Ahmed, also lost his appeal against deportation but is still in prison, serving a 22-year term for rape.

Abdul Aziz, who took over the role as ringleader from Shabir Ahmed, avoided deportation after renouncing his Pakistani nationality – just days before the Court of Appeal ruled he could be stripped of his UK citizenship.

According to The Sun, Khan and Rauf will only be reported if Pakistan agrees to take them back, which it is allegedly refusing to do so. The pair renounced their Pakistani citizenship in September 2018.

With talks of justice during Monday’s press conference, we asked Mr Burnham on Monday (15 January) for an update regarding the deportation of some of the abusers, as the Home Office has continually refused to issue updates beyond: “We do not comment on individual cases.”

Mr Burnham has previously called for the Home Office to take action and “put the victims first,” saying that its failure to inform of any developments showed: “a flagrant disregard for the local communities who remained deeply affected and distressed by this postponement of justice.”

 

 

Speaking to Rochdale Online on Monday, he said: “I’ve written a number of letters to the many Home Secretaries that we’ve had in recent years; I’ve repeatedly raised this very same question.

“We’ve had what I can only describe as ‘bland’ assurances that action will be taken on that. I think, if I’m going to be fair, that there has been some progress recently, but I do think people need clarity on that issue.

“I will seek a further update on that.”

Mr Burnham said he thought he last raised the issue around a year ago, adding that both himself and the two deputy mayors [Kate Green, the current deputy mayor, and her predecessor, Bev Hughes] had done so.

We asked: “In the interest of transparency, do you think that they [the Home Office] should be clear to the public that things are happening, even if they can’t [publicly] talk about it, rather than [repeatedly] issuing the same statement?

“I think they should not hide behind the law,” Mr Burnham replied. “I think people do need an answer, particularly when people are living in a community where their abusers may still be at large and that’s just not acceptable for me, coming face-to-face in a supermarket.

“The Home Office is often quick to point out people’s failings but very vague when it comes to its own and it has failed, in my view, to deal with this issue with the speed that it should have been dealt with.”

Failure to deport the pair has, understandably, led to fury over the years from the Rochdale public, with the overarching question of how justice can possibly be served when they have been allowed to return to the town where their victims live.

One of Khan’s victims – whom he impregnated at the age of 13 – told the review team how she had come face to face with him in Asda. She did not know he had been released from prison, telling the review team: “I got abuse hurled at me in the street, saying oh you got men done for rape. Loads of men chased us in the cars. I was also in the local Asda about four or five years after the trial and I bumped into my abuser who got me pregnant.

“I didn’t even know he was out of prison. Nobody had told me or asked me if I wanted to object to him being released. I see many of the men who abused me all the time, all around Rochdale all the time. I rang the police. They just said lock your door.”

Khan is also understood to have previously argued that he shouldn’t be deported due to wanting to be ‘a role model’ for his own son.

Responding to Mr Burnham's comments, a Home Office spokesperson said: "The findings of this report are shocking and appalling and our thoughts go out to all victims affected.

“The disgraceful failures in Rochdale must never happen again. That’s why we have set up a dedicated taskforce of specialist officers to tackle grooming gangs, helping forces target those who prey on young people and bring them to justice, and will introduce mandatory reporting for adults working with young people if someone in their care is being sexually abused.

“We know we must do more to protect vulnerable children and our new Criminal Justice Bill will look to further protect victims and make sure grooming gangs and their leaders face the toughest possible sentences.”

The taskforce works closely with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) specialist Organised Child Sexual Abuse Unit (OCSAU) to build strong cases for prosecution and is also supported by a dedicated child sexual abuse and exploitation analyst in each of the ten policing Regional Organised Crime Units.

The Home Office has also provided £6.5 million this year for the Tackling Organised Exploitation programme (TOEX) which brings together local, regional and national data and intelligence, and expert analysis to help forces uncover grooming gangs and other networks which are sexually exploiting children. TOEX has helped support 78 child sexual exploitation investigations and has submitted almost 500 intelligence reports to support forces undertaking child sexual exploitation cases.

It is also providing the NSPCC with £1.6m to supplement the provision of national helpline services on child sexual abuse and whistleblowing, and improve public awareness of such crimes, and will be working closely with the National Police Chiefs’ Council to implement necessary changes to police practice, including introducing a duty of candour for policing in England and Wales.