Two Rochdale grooming gang members lose appeal against deportation to Pakistan

Two members of the notorious Rochdale grooming gang have lost their appeal against being deported back to Pakistan.

The decision was made in August and released publicly today (October 26th).

Adil Khan, fifty-one, and Abdul Rauf, fifty-two, are facing deportation as a result of their crimes, but both had fought the decision on human rights grounds.

According to The Independent, Judges Charlotte Welsh and Judge Siew Ling Yoke, a diversity and community relations judge, stated in their thirty-one-page legal ruling that Khan had shown a ‘breath-taking lack of remorse’ and in his and Rauf’s case, there was a ‘very strong public interest’ in their removal.

The two men were convicted in May 2012 for the role they played in the infamous gang, which was repsonsible for the grooming and sexual assaults of dozens of girls in the Rochdale area. 

Khan had told the tribunal hearing earlier this year he wanted to stay in the UK to be a ‘role model’ for his son.

Khan, who trafficked an underage girl and got another pregnant, said: “As you know, the father figure is very important in every culture in the world, to be a role model for the child, to tell him or her right from wrong.”

He also claimed he is not wanted by his family back in Pakistan because his reputation would affect their business.

ITV

For two years, the gang preyed on girls as young as twelve, plying them with alcohol and drugs before raping them in rooms above takeaway shops.

GMP believe as many as forty-seven underage girls were groomed, with many being ferried to different flats where cash was paid to use them.

Nine gang members were eventually prosecuted in 2012, mainly thanks to the work of health worker Sara Rowbotham, who repeatedly raised concerns about dozens of young girls she believed to be at risk.

Rowbotham became an integral part of the prosecution, which included convictions of sex trafficking, rape and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child. Earlier this year, she was appointed MBE for services to young people at a ceremony at Windsor Castle.