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Rochdale Grooming Gang Ringleader Remains in Community as Deportation Talks with Pakistan Stall

A national inquiry will review more than 1,000 grooming gang cold cases

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Overview

  • Qari Abdul Rauf, jailed in 2012 for trafficking and abusing girls as young as 12, continues to live in the Rochdale neighbourhood where he committed his crimes
  • Rauf renounced his Pakistani citizenship and destroyed his passport in 2014 to avoid deportation and claim statelessness
  • Pakistan has refused to readmit Rauf without valid travel documents and recent UK-Pakistan negotiations on his removal have made little progress
  • The national inquiry, prompted by Baroness Casey’s review, will examine systemic failings and audit over 1,000 unresolved grooming gang investigations
  • Planned legal reforms will require any adult convicted of penetrative sex with a child under 16 to face a mandatory rape charge