Two members of a Rochdale grooming gang are to be deported to Pakistan after shedding a seven-year authorized struggle to stay in Britain.
Adil Khan, 51, and Qari Abdul Rauf, 53, had been convicted in 2012 of a collection of sexual offences in opposition to younger women and jailed later the identical 12 months.
The pair mounted a authorized problem after Theresa Might, the then-home secretary, instructed them they might be deported.
They’d argued that their human rights could be infringed by being faraway from Britain and each mentioned that they had certificates renouncing their Pakistani citizenship.
In a ruling handed down on Wednesday, nonetheless, immigration judges mentioned there was a “very robust public curiosity” to deport the pair as quickly as potential.
Judges Charlotte Welsh and Siew Ling Yoke mentioned Khan had proven a “breathtaking lack of regret” about his half within the nine-member grooming gang that police imagine abused as many as 47 weak women in Rochdale between 2008 and 2010.
The deportation ruling, which was made in August however launched publicly on Wednesday, is the end result of a seven-year authorized problem that has annoyed a number of house secretaries and elevated tensions in Rochdale, the place victims had been dwelling alongside their tormentors.
Khan, who was jailed for eight years, was convicted of trafficking a 15-year-old lady to his associates for sexual exploitation and utilizing violence when she complained. His trial heard how, in his 40s, he had acquired a 13-year-old lady pregnant and denied he was the daddy.
Throughout numerous deportation attraction hearings Khan complained about having no rights within the UK and mentioned he wanted to stay to be a job mannequin for his son and train him “proper from improper”.
He additionally denied grooming offences, saying his prosecution was racially motivated. He claimed he couldn’t have groomed anybody as a result of he was unable to talk English.
Rauf, a father-of-five, was convicted of trafficking a 15-year-old lady for intercourse and jailed for six years, serving two years and 6 months of his sentence earlier than being launched in 2014.
Dwelling Workplace attorneys argued the case had taken a “very very long time” and that it was within the public curiosity to deport each males as quickly as potential.
They’ve now appeared earlier than 12 judges, together with a grasp of the rolls, throughout hearings at three crown courts, a lot of immigration tribunals and the court docket of attraction. The pair’s authorized problem was funded by greater than £550,000 of public cash.
Police have mentioned the gang groomed women as younger as 12, and the trial in 2012 heard how the victims had been plied with alcohol and medicines, gang-raped above takeaway outlets and ferried to flats in taxis to be abused.