Child sex ringleader revealed

Shabir Ahmed

The ringleader of a gang of Asian men who groomed young white girls for sex can finally be unmasked after he was found guilty of 30 child rape charges.

Shabir Ahmed, 59, led a child sex exploitation ring of nine men who targeted vulnerable young girls in Rochdale and Oldham.

He was jailed for 19 years last month following an 11-week trial at Liverpool Crown Court.

But Ahmed - known to his victims by the nickname "Daddy" - could not be named as he was awaiting trial on separate child rape charges.

He was convicted of 30 charges of rape by a jury at Manchester Crown Court and Judge Mushtaq Khokhar lifted reporting restrictions, which means he can be identified for the first time.

The court heard that he raped and sexually abused a young Asian girl over many years. It was also told he treated her as a "possession" which he used for his own sexual gratification.

Ahmed, formerly of Windsor Road, Oldham, wearing a black Lonsdale tracksuit top, smirked as the jury returned the unanimous verdicts.

Judge Gerald Clifton, who sentenced Ahmed in Liverpool, said the gang treated their victims "as though they were worthless and beyond any respect".

Ahmed was violent and dominated his victim, a jury of six men and six women was told in his latest trial.

Rachel Smith, opening the case for the prosecution, said Ahmed repeatedly raped the victim for more than a decade. She said the victim was eventually forced to submit to him and the abuse happened on an almost weekly basis.

Mohammed Shafiq, Chief Executive of The Ramadan Foundation, has been following the case since the beginning and was in court on Tuesday at Mr Ahmeds’ trials. He said: “First and foremost we must pay tribute to his victim, who had to endure an awful life. She was abused from the age of three to 17 and so my heart goes out to her.

“I am disgusted with this thoroughly evil man. I think the death penalty should be brought back for cases such as this. It is ludicrous that we will spend our money to house and feed him, when, in other countries, they would have used the death penalty for him.

“The case still hasn’t finished and numerous arrests still need to be made. We need to eradicate all of this evil from our society.”