Two members of Rochdale grooming gang lose long-running appeal against Pakistan deportation

Two members of a sex grooming gang in Rochdale have lost a long-running appeal against being deported to Pakistan.

51-year-old Adil Khan and 52-year-old Qari Abdul Rauf were part of a nine-member gang that groomed dozens of girls for sex in the Greater Manchester town for two years in the late 2000s, before they were eventually convicted for child sex offences back in May 2012.

The gang operated for two years from 2008, and were found to have been plying girls as young as 12 with alcohol and drugs and gang-raping them at various locations – sometimes “pimping” them out for money.

As many as 47 girls were abused, according to Greater Manchester Police.

Among the convictions, Khan got a 13-year-old girl pregnant, but denied he was the father, and then met another girl, 15, and trafficked her for others to abuse, often using violence when she complained, while father-of-five Rauf trafficked a 15-year-old girl and drove her to secluded areas to sexually abuse her in his taxi, and then move her to a flat in Rochdale where he and others abused her.

All nine men were jailed for their part in the gang.

After being freed from jail in 2014 and 2016 respectively, Rauf and Khan then began a long campaign to try and avoid being deported from UK to Pakistan after their British citizenship was revoked, citing article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights – which is the right to a private and family life.

Khan had argued at his last hearing in June that he shouldn’t be deported because his son needed a role model, and lawyers for the pair also argued they were “stateless” due to the fact they had certificates showing renouncement their Pakistani citizenship.

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

Judges said Khan had shown a “breathtaking lack of remorse”, and that there was a “very strong public interest” in both men being kicked out, in a decision that was made in August and has been released publicly today.

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Home Office lawyers argued that the case had taken a “very long time” to get to this point, and it was now in the public interest to deport both men “as soon as possible”.

In April, Greater Manchester Police apologised to three victims, with the police force admitting that officers “could and should have done much more” to protect them and that “we let you down,” – but campaigners criticised the apology for being “10 years too late”.

Featured Image – GMP