Jailed Rochdale sex gang trio stripped of UK citizenship

THREE members of the Rochdale grooming gang have been stripped of British citizenship and face deportation as a judge said it was for the “public good” they be sent back to Pakistan.

Abdul Aziz, Adil Khan and Qari Abdul Rauf were jailed alongside six other men in 2012, but they appealed against a decision by Theresa May, then home secretary, to remove their citizenship, allowing their deportation.

Yesterday, they lost their third appeal against the decision, made in 2015.

All three men have British children and had challenged the decision on the basis that it violated their right to a family life.

They will now be allowed to appeal against the decision if deportation orders are signed against them, but the process could take months. The men currently remain in prison.

They were part of a gang that targeted teenage girls in Rochdale. In some cases the girls were raped and pimped out to paying customers in local towns.

All three men involved in the appeal were found guilty of conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with children under the age of 16 and trafficking for sexual exploitation.

Aziz, 47, who was one of the ringleaders of the grooming gang and referred to by some of the others as The Master, was jailed for nine years. Abdul Rauf, 48, a married father of five, was jailed for six years and Khan for eight years. Outlining their offending, Lord Justice Sales said: “All the men treated the girls as though they were worthless and beyond all respect. They were motivated by lust and greed.”

Mrs May made the decision to strip them of their citizenship following their conviction, a move that could eventually lead to their deportation once they were released from jail.

But the men took their case to the Court of Appeal and represented themselves before three senior judges at a hearing in July, during which Adil Khan, 48, said he was innocent of any crime. It followed two previous appeal hearings, which they also lost.

Rejecting their appeals, Lord Justice Sales and two other judges ruled yesterday that the tribunals made a “proper and lawful assessment” of the likelihood of deportation.

The judge said: “Given the extremely serious nature of the offending by each appellant, there is no good ground for calling that conclusion into question.”

The Home Office said: “This was an appalling case – which is why we took action to deprive these criminals of their UK citizenship.

“We welcome the court’s finding and will now consider the next steps. Citizenship is a privilege, not a right.”