Rochdale grooming gang leader wins fight against deportation

One of the notorious Rochdale grooming gang leaders has won his fight against deportation to Pakistan.

Following the decision, an Immigration Tribunal heard it would therefore be wrong to deport two other gang members who are currently fighting a legal battle to stay in the country.

51-year-old Abdul Aziz, known as ‘The Master’ by the gang, has been informed by the Home Office that he will not lose his UK citizenship and be deported to Pakistan.

Aziz was sentenced to nine years in jail back in 2012, after he was found guilty of trafficking for sexual exploitation a 15-year-old girl and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child by penetrative sex.

His victim was taken to flats around Rochdale where he gave her drink and drugs and made her have sex with multiple men, who then paid Aziz.

Alongside Aziz, Adil Khan and Qari Abdul Rauf were also part of the nine gang members sentenced for a variety of sexual offences in 2012.

Bill Boaden / Wikimedia Commons

All three held Pakistani citizenship and were liable to be deported, with the Home Secretary at the time Theresa May saying it’d be ‘conducive to the public good’.

However, since leaving jail they’ve fought to remain in the country, saying deportation would ‘interfere with their human rights’.

Rauf, 52, and Khan, 51, are currently appealing at an Immigration Tribunal, with a decision as to whether they’ll be deported expected later in the year.