Calls for Rochdale trio to be deported

AN MP has called for the deportation of three Rochdale grooming gang members after it was discovered they were still living in the area, writes Nick Statham.

Qari Abdul Rauf, Abdul Aziz and Adil Khan were among nine men convicted in 2012 of a catalogue of sex offences against vulnerable girls in Rochdale and Heywood.

The dual British-Pakistani nationals had their British citizenship revoked so they could be deported – and two years ago lost an appeal against the ruling.

But the news that they remain in the town where many of their victims still live has sparked outrage.

Heywood and Middleton MP Chris Clarkson has written to home secretary Priti Patel urging her to secure the deportation of the three men. Rochdale MP Tony Lloyd and Bev Hughes, the Greater Manchester deputy mayor for policing and crime have also called for the men to be returned to Pakistan.

Lloyd, meanwhile, was left “furious” by justice secretary Robert Buckland’s response in which he said that the Probation Service had ‘no powers to prohibit the offender returning to live in the area in which they offended or where the victim lives’. (Local Democracy Reporting Service)