Rochdale grooming gang members lose deportation appeal

Adil Khan (left) and Qari Abdul Rauf (right) were jailed in 2012 for a catalogue of serious child sex offences

Two members of the Rochdale grooming gang have lost an appeal against deportation after a seven-year legal battle.

Adil Khan, 51, and Qari Abdul Rauf, 52, were told they would be sent back to Pakistan after release from jail for the public good.

They were both convicted of a catalogue of child sex offences in May 2012.

Immigration judges ruled their challenge against deportation on human rights grounds had failed.

The appeal was heard at an immigration tribunal in June with a decision made in August, but judges have only just released their legal ruling.

It stated Khan had shown a "breath-taking lack of remorse" and in his and Rauf's case there was a "very strong public interest" in them being kicked out of the UK.

BBC One drama Three Girls told the story of the child sex abuse in Rochdale and then failings by authorities

Khan had told the hearing he wanted to stay in the UK to be a "role model" for his son and "teach him right from wrong".

Both men tried to use human rights laws as reasons not to be removed and said they both had certificates "renouncing" their Pakistani citizenship.

The pair, along with another man - Abdul Aziz - had fought and lost a long legal battle against an order depriving them of UK citizenship, the prelude to deportation, losing a final Court of Appeal ruling in 2018.

During the appeal hearing it emerged Aziz, a ringleader of the gang, had been allowed to remain in the UK because he had also renounced his Pakistani citizenship but earlier than the other two and just days before the Court of Appeal ruling.

Failure to deport any of the men has led to anger in Rochdale, where victims were living alongside their tormentors.

Abdul Aziz, who was known as "the Master" by the gang, was jailed for nine years

Khan got a 13-year-old girl pregnant, but denied he was the father, then met another girl, 15, and trafficked her for others to abuse, using violence when she complained.

Rauf, a father-of-five, trafficked a 15-year-old girl, driving her to secluded areas to sexually abuse her in his taxi and ferry her to a flat in Rochdale where he and others abused her.

Nine men were jailed for their part in the gang. Police said as many as 47 girls were groomed by them.

The abuse became the focus of a BBC One drama which outlined various failings by local authorities.

For two years from early 2008, girls as young as 12 were plied with alcohol and drugs and gang-raped in rooms above takeaway shops and ferried to different flats in taxis where cash was paid to use the girls.

During the tribunal hearing Khan denied the grooming offences, saying his prosecution was motivated by racism and claimed he could not groom anyone as he could not speak English.

Home Office lawyers argued the case had taken a "very long time" and it was in the public interest to deport both men "as soon as possible".

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