Grooming gang leader won’t be kicked out of UK
Home Office let him stay, judge told
A RINGLEADER of the notorious Rochdale grooming gang has won his battle against deportation to his native Pakistan, it was revealed yesterday.
The status of Abdul Aziz, known as ‘The Master’ by his fellow abusers, has been shrouded in secrecy but yesterday – to the outrage of campaigners – it was revealed that he won his fight to stay in the UK almost four years ago.
The taxi driver, 51, who took victims to sex parties in Leeds and Bradford, was convicted of trafficking and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child and jailed for nine years in 2012.
He used human rights laws in a bid to avoid being thrown out of the country but was stripped of his UK citizenship in 2018.
Fellow gang members Adil Khan, 52, and Qari Abdul Rauf, 53, are still fighting efforts to send them back to Pakistan – and the truth about Aziz was revealed by a barrister representing Rauf.
The barrister read out a document which she said then Home Secretary Sajid Javid wrote to Aziz on Hallowe’en 2018. It revealed that Aziz renounced his Pakistani citizenship on July 13, 2018 – five days before an Appeal Court hearing where he, Rauf and Khan lost their battle against being stripped of British nationality.
As a result, the Home Secretary ‘has decided not to make a deprivation order in respect of you’, the letter went on, meaning Aziz retained his British citizenship.
The Home Office last night failed to deny that Aziz was therefore no longer facing deportation. Whistleblower Maggie Oliver, who resigned as a detective over failings in how police handled grooming cases in Rochdale, said victims would be horrified to learn that Aziz has secretly had his British citizenship restored.
‘All three of them should have been kicked out of the country as soon as they were released from prison,’ she told the Daily Mail.
‘Instead they’ve been given hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal aid to pay for clever lawyers who seek to defend the indefensible. It’s just the latest evidence that our criminal justice system is broken and that victims get no consideration at all.’
Last night Rochdale MP Tony Lloyd, who in 2019 demanded ‘urgent action’ by Mr Javid to deport the trio, said his successor Priti Patel had tough questions to answer. ‘I’m astonished, and the people of Rochdale will share that none more so than those whose lives were badly hurt by this gang,’ he said.
Victims have told of their incredulity that the trio – all of whom had dual UK-Pakistani nationality – remain in the country.
Last night the Home Office refused to give any information on Aziz, saying it didn’t ‘routinely comment on individual cases’.
Khan and Rauf have also renounced their Pakistani citizenship. They are arguing at an immigration tribunal that deportation would breach their right to private and family life.
Rauf’s barrister – granted anonymity by the court – claimed that the different treatment of Aziz and Rauf raise questions of ‘consistency of decision-making’.
However, Judge Charlotte Welsh yesterday ruled that the letter relating to Aziz’s case was ‘irrelevant’ to Rauf’s appeal. A decision on the appeals by Rauf and Aziz will be made at a later date.
‘Victims get no consideration’