Rochdale grooming gang members lose appeal against deportation from UK to Pakistan

Two members of a notorious grooming gang have lost their appeal against deportation from the UK to Pakistan, immigration judges have ruled.

Adil Khan and Abdul Rauf were both part of the Rochdale grooming gang that were convicted of a number of serious sex offences in May 2012.

Since their release from jail, they have fought a long legal battle against deportation on the grounds that it would interfere with their human rights.

Khan, 51, even told the tribunal the deportation would mean he could no longer be a "good role model" for his son.

Following a legal battle involving multiple legal challenges and appeals up to the Court of Appeal, both have been told their challenge against deportation on human rights grounds has failed.

During his trial, the court heard Khan got a 13-year-old girl pregnant, but denied he was the father, before meeting another teenage girl and trafficking her to other men.

He was sentenced to eight years in 2012 and released on licence four years later.

Rauf, who is now 52, trafficked a 15-year-old girl for sex, driving her to secluded areas to have sex with her and to a flat in Rochdale where he and others had sex with her.

He was jailed for six years and released in November 2014 after serving two years and six months of his sentence.

In June, their appeal against deportation was heard before an Immigration Tribunal, when Judge Charlotte Welch stated that Khan had shown a “breath-taking lack of remorse”.

She added that there was "a very strong and public interest" in his and Rauf’s removal from the country.

Both men cited their human rights as reason not to be kicked out of the UK, with Khan telling the the tribunal that he wanted to stay in the UK to be a “role model” for his son.

Other grounds of appeal cited were “statelessness” after both renounced his Pakistani nationality, receiving a certificate of proof in September 2018, so could not be returned there.

But this only came after the Court of Appeal decision in June to deport them from the UK, though the deprivation order was only received by them in November 2018.

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

The failure to then deport them has led to anger in Rochdale, where victims were living alongside their abusers.

Nine men were found guilty of abusing as many as 47 girls, aged 13 to 22, between 2005 and 2013.

The outcome of the Rochdale grooming gang court case has taken too long, mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and the deputy mayor for police, crime and criminal justice, Bev Hughes, have said.

In a joint statement they said: "We welcome this decision but it comes after too many years of long legal battles and suspended justice for the victims and communities whose lives were ruined by the appalling crimes of these men. This is now the second appeal that they have lost against deportation. There is no question that it must be the last.

"Throughout the years, we have repeatedly pressed the Home Office for action, including after the first appeal was lost in 2018. We called on them to put the victims first and ensure that these men could not be allowed to go about their lives in the places where they carried out their abuses.

"Despite our representations, the Home Office's failure to inform us of the developments in the case showed a flagrant disregard for the local communities who remained deeply affected and distressed by this postponement of justice.

"The new Home Secretary must now get a grip of this situation and restore the confidence of those communities. We hope that the deportation process can now be completed swiftly to provide some small sense of closure to those who suffered so terribly at their hands."