Child abuser kept council welfare job despite being accused of preying on young girl
THE ringleader of a notorious child grooming gang was allowed to keep working as a council welfare officer despite being accused of preying on a young girl, a damning report revealed yesterday.
Shabir Ahmed, 69, was later jailed for 19 years as part of a gang of Asian paedophiles who raped, abused and tormented children as young as 13 in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.
The hard-hitting independent report said some of his victims could have been spared horrific ordeals if action had been taken while the then Labour Party member was working for Oldham Council.
The report, which was commissioned after claims that child sex abuse was covered up by Oldham’s Labour establishment, also revealed that: nPolice and council workers missed opportunities to prevent a 12-year-old girl being raped – and allowed her abusers to go free; nTaxi driver licences were given to men convicted or accused of sexual offences; nAbusers were allowed to prey on girls at shisha bars despite police warnings; nSocial workers claimed that girls who were drugged and raped ‘put themselves at risk’.
Maggie Oliver, 66, a former Greater Manchester detective who turned whistleblower over the poor police handling of the Rochdale abuse scandal, said of the review: ‘ Another day yet another report about the failures of a
‘Failed to prevent rape of 12-year-old’
police force to protect the most vulnerable in our society – even when there is irrefutable evidence to prosecute offenders and safeguard children.’
The report concluded there was no evidence of a cover-up or ‘widespread’ sex abuse in Oldham’s children’s homes, but said well-intentioned efforts to protect youngsters too often ended in failure.
It highlighted how Ahmed had access to vulnerable children through his role while seconded to a local Pakistani community centre.
It said although Greater Manchester Police received an allegation of child sex abuse against him in 2005, officers chose not to inform the council. The report added that if they had told the council ‘it may have potentially avoided the tragic abuse of other children’.
Ahmed left his council role the following year, and in 2012 police informed the council of a further allegation which occurred while he was part of the welthemselves fare team. However, the report said the case was ‘ inexplicably closed...within a few days’. By then the former taxi driver – nicknamed ‘ Daddy’ – had already been charged with sex offences, including two rapes.
The report said ‘ significant opportunities’ were missed to protect a young abuse victim referred to as ‘ Sophie’. She went to Oldham police station to report being raped by an Asian man in 2006, but was told to come back when she was ‘not drunk’.
She was then picked up in a car and raped before being taken to a house and sexually assaulted by five men. In 2012, Sophie gave evidence to a Commons home affairs committee hearing into grooming.
In response to letters from the committee chairman, Oldham Council insisted it had followed the correct steps, while a senior detective described the police investigation as ‘flawless’.
The report branded the responses as ‘ unacceptable’, slamming Greater Manchester Police for being ‘less than candid’ with MPs. It said the council and police were ‘more concerned about covering up their failures’ than acknowledging they failed to take action.
Two men were later jailed for rape over the abuse of Sophie, which began when she was 12. But a third man went on the run after being bailed and remains at large.
The report also found ‘poor’ casework by child protection workers, with victims described as ‘putting at risk’ despite evidence they were ‘being drugged or made senseless on vodka then subjected to violent rapes’.
The review follows an earlier damning report, centred on grooming gangs in Manchester, which said victims had been failed by police and councils.
Miss Oliver said: ‘This report yet again clearly evidences catastrophic failings by the force and their repeated attempts to cover up and hide these failings both from the victims and from the public they serve. That is extremely worrying.’
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said the report shone a spotlight on past failures, adding: ‘There were serious failings and victims were let down, particularly Sophie. Whilst there was no evidence of a cover-up, we must not flinch from acknowledging shortcomings.’ Labour MPs for the Oldham area said it highlighted an ‘uncomfortable and disturbing’ reality – but insisted that it showed no basis for ‘often politically motivated conspiracy theories’ suggesting that local politicians had staged a cover-up.
Manchester Chief Constable Stephen Watson apologised for past mistakes but pledged that his officers’ approach today was ‘worlds apart’. His force is still investigating past grooming offences and 13 suspects have been identified. The review by independent experts was commissioned by Oldham Council in 2019.
‘Catastrophic police mistakes’