Lord Ahmed: Peer's prison sentence cut by appeal court

Ahmed, pictured at his sentencing in 2022, had challenged his original jail term

The Court of Appeal has cut the jail term given to former Labour peer Lord Ahmed of Rotherham for sexually abusing two children in the 1970s.

Ahmed was convicted, under his birth name Nazir Ahmed, of trying to rape a young girl and sexually assaulting a boy under 11.

He was jailed for five years and six months at Sheffield Crown Court in February 2022.

Three Appeal Court judges have reduced the term to two years and six months.

Lord Burnett, the Lord Chief Justice; Lord Justice Holroyde and Lord Justice William Davis concluded the original trial judge Mr Justice Lavender "fell into error" when passing sentence.

They said the fact that Ahmed was a child when he committed the offences had to be taken into account.

Their decision followed a hearing in London in January.

Ahmed had challenged Mr Justice Lavender's sentencing decision and the appeal judges made a ruling in his favour.

During his original trial, the court heard the abuse happened in Rotherham.

He had attempted to rape the girl on two occasions when he was aged about 16 or 17 and she was much younger.

The attack on the boy also happened during the same period.

Ahmed was found guilty of two counts of attempted rape against the girl and a serious sexual assault against the boy.

Shorter sentence 'suitable'

He had originally been given two years for each of the attempted rapes, to run concurrently, with a further three years and six months for assaulting the boy.

The judges said had he been sentenced shortly after the assault on the boy he would have been 14 and a child with no previous convictions.

They concluded "a custodial sentence of six months would probably have been regarded as a suitable penalty".

However, they made no criticism of the sentence imposed in relation to the attempted rapes which were offences by a teenager "against a very young victim".

The three judges said they had considered the legal issues relating to the "correct approach" when sentencing an adult for an offence committed when they were a child.