Rochdale grooming gang victim given police protection after ringleader Shabir Ahmed walks free
A victim of the Rochdale grooming gang has been given extra police protection after the release of the gang’s leader Shabir Ahmed.
Ruby, who was 12 when Ahmed’s group began abusing her, has been given an ‘urgent response marker’ by Greater Manchester police (GMP), which allows for rapid deployment to her home.
Officers are treating her as a ‘high-risk victim’ after they were told ‘Ruby does not feel safe with Ahmed in the community.’
Ahmed, 73, who wanted to be known as ‘Daddy’ to his victims, left prison on Thursday after 14 years in jail for multiple rape and sexual offences against young girls.
The terms of Ahmed’s release are understood to be that he must initially live in secure accommodation and cannot enter an ‘exclusion zone’ centred on Rochdale.
There is widespread anger among survivors and politicians that Ahmed cannot be deported because of niche law.
Ruby previously spoke out to say she was scared for the safety and her kids over his release.
There have since been talks with GMP officers about her security and she has been given an app to download on to her phone to contact police should she feel in danger.
Ruby was threatened at gunpoint in 2011 by someone linked to Ahmed’s gang, who said he would ‘shoot her’ if she went to police.
She bumped into one of her abusers, Ahmed’s friend Adil Khan, in a Rochdale Asda in 2018, after he was released from prison.
Khan is currently thought to have left the UK.
Maggie Oliver, a police whistleblower who helped expose the handling and cover up of the Rochdale grooming gang, said: ‘I’ve known Ruby for 15 years and supported her through everything.
‘And in 15 years I’ve never seen her so frightened, feeling so angry and powerless and triggered and actually outraged.
‘She was promised so many things. She was promised therapy, a team to support her, and that her abusers would be deported. None of it has happened.’
Oliver revealed she met GMP last week to organise security for Ruby at her home in Rochdale.
The campaigner added: ‘None of that was done for her. I had to ask for it. She’s been set up now for her safety. She’s in a mess. She’s fearful, and rightly so.
‘She’s been threatened at gunpoint, her and Amber, and told not to go to the police. That man was never prosecuted.’
Ahmed’s release has also triggered the police to tighten security provisions around other victims of the gang.
Oliver said many of those victims had not been informed about Ahmed’s release.
A political storm has erupted over Ahmed’s freedom from prison.
Lawmakers have admitted that the Immigration Act 1971 means he can not be deported to Pakistan, where he was born, even though he has already been stripped of British citizenship.
The Foreign Office is now understood to be engaging in the ‘diplomatic route’ with Pakistan in order to deport Ahmed, potentially using visa sanctions, withholding foreign aid, or other financial sanctions.
James Murray, the health secretary, said on Sunday that the home secretary Shabana Mahmood is ‘doing everything she can’ to remove Ahmed.
He told Sky News’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: ‘I know that the home secretary and the foreign secretary were working on this, looking at all options to get him out of the country, because it just feels wrong.’
Media has spoken to another grooming gang survivor whose rapist was released early from prison, who said the ‘fear is real’ after Rochdale rape leader Shabir Ahmed walked free.
Elizabeth Harper’s rapist, Asghar Bostan, was spotted near her house in Rotherham in 2024 after he was released early on parole.
Elizabeth, who said she felt ‘sick’ at the time, said: ‘The fear is real, and it does come true sometimes.’
Asked about the release of Shabir Ahmed, Elizabeth told: ‘It just goes to show how the system really isn’t working.
‘We are talking about an individual who organised a gang. He was the top of the hierarchy.
‘I just feel like again we are seeing the poor victims are at the bottom of the pile.’
Head of Investigations
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