The leader of the notorious Rochdale grooming gang – convicted of 30 child rapes – has been released from prison today as Downing Street still insists it is powerless to deport him from Britain.

Shabir Ahmed, 73, walked free from HMP Leeds on Thursday and is set to begin life in a bail hostel in the north of England, at an estimated cost to taxpayers of £120 a night.

He is moving in to a facility close to Rochdale, where many of his victims still live, and is wearing a GPS tag.

Ahmed – who instructed his victims to call him ‘Daddy’ – is a Pakistani national who acquired British citizenship through naturalisation. He plied girls as young as 13 with drink and drugs before ‘passing them around’ to be abused by him and eight associates.

Despite his conviction in 2012, his victims – most of them white working-class girls – have been told he cannot be deported to Pakistan because of a legal loophole.

They have also voiced fears for their safety now the Rochdale grooming gang leader is free after serving 14 years of a 19-year sentence.

The Ministry of Justice has refused to say if he is out of jail, citing ‘security reasons’, but a source told the Daily Mail: ‘Ahmed has already been released. He is in a secure placement just outside the GMP area.’ 

Ahmed held dual British-Pakistani citizenship and was stripped of his British citizenship following his conviction. Yet the Government insists it has no legal powers to remove him from the UK.

Prime minister-in-waiting Andy Burnham has said he will ask senior ministers to find a way to deport Ahmed, declaring that ‘nothing is off the table’.

But he was undermined by Downing Street today, where Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said Ahmed had an ‘exemption from deportation’ under UK law.

A prisoner leaves HMP Leeds this morning under a blanket in a blacked-out taxi as Shabir Ahmed, 73, was quietly released from the jail today

Rochdale abuse gang leader Shabir Ahmed, 73, has been released from prison but despite being stripped of British citizenship cannot be deported to Pakistan

Shabir Ahmed accusing the white community of letting down the girls who testified against him and his sex gang during the 2012 trial

‘Ahmed’s horrific crimes were at the heart of the grooming gang scandal which represents one of the darkest moments in our country’s history. He will rightly be on the sex offenders’ register for life, ordered to stay away from his victims and banned from contacting any child or young person,’ she told reporters.

‘His every movement will be tracked and he will be forced to wear an electronic tag. In this specific case we cannot deport someone who is protected by the 1971 Immigration Act, these are the same provisions which have protected many individuals caught up in the Windrush crisis.’

Asked if Mr Starmer is frustrated at the law blocking Ahmed’s deportation, the spokesman added: ‘It is fair to say the PM would always want to see these vile criminals deported.’

The Prime Minister’s Official spokesperson added that the PM has asked the Home Secretary to look into all options including ‘what can be done to remove this individual from the UK.’

Ahmed has spent years fighting deportation to Pakistan at taxpayers’ expense, citing human rights laws and arguing that his removal from the UK would affect the welfare of his children.

After his convictions, he complained it was because there were ‘eleven white jurors’ at his trial, adding: ‘It’s become fashionable to blame everything on Muslims these days.’

Three-times-married Ahmed has four children living in the UK, having moved here from Pakistan around 50 years ago.

In 2022, when he was mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham called on the Tory government ‘to do everything within [its] power’ to deport grooming gang members.

The failure to deport members of grooming gangs has caused deep anger in communities and among victims.

In 2012, Sir Keir – then head of the Crown Prosecution Service – oversaw the jailing of the gang.

But last year, one of those jailed – Abdul Aziz – won a human rights battle that prevented his deportation to Pakistan.

Justice minister Jake Richards told the BBC’s Politics Live there were long-standing issues with ‘our ability to deport foreign national offenders to Pakistan’.

‘We need to try and work on that and see whether it’s possible, but in this case, it seems unlikely,’ he said.

When asked if the law should be changed to allow the deportation, he said: ‘I think it’s very difficult to change the law to look retrospectively.’

But he added he was ‘absolutely looking at this individual and if he is to be released from prison, looking at what we are doing to ensure, firstly, to look after his victims and keeping the community safe’.

Meanwhile, one victim – identified only as ‘Ruby’ – said: ‘I’m scared for my safety and my kids’ safety.

‘The main ringleader is getting out of prison, who is well known in Rochdale, Oldham and Middleton, so even if he’s not in that area, he still knows people and has a chance to talk to people from that area and that makes me unsafe.’

She said victims of abuse had been given ‘false promises’ and left to ‘fend for themselves’ through a lack of support from the authorities.

Documents published online – understood to be from the Probation Service – state that he cannot be deported back to Pakistan due to provisions in the Immigration Act 1971 that bar his removal.

These are that he arrived in the UK before 1973 and has lived in the UK for at least five years before his deportation was considered.

A national inquiry into grooming gangs was announced earlier this year after the Government came under increasing criticism.

Ahmed was jailed for 30 rapes after he and his gang groomed girls in Rochdale (pictured)

The Home Office said Ahmed’s crimes were ‘appalling’ and that he would be subject to stringent licence conditions upon his release from prison.

He must initially live in supervised accommodation 24/7 and will be subject to an ‘exclusion zone’ centred on Rochdale.

Ahmed was jailed for 19 years in 2012 at Liverpool Crown Court as one of nine men in the Rochdale grooming gang convicted of offences against five girls.

Police said as many as 50 girls could have been victims of the gang, and that many of them had come from ‘chaotic’, ‘council estate’ backgrounds.

Judge Gerald Clifton said victims were treated ‘as though they were worthless and beyond any respect’ because they were not part of the gang’s community or religion.

Greater Manchester Police said at the time there was no ‘racial or cultural’ element to the crimes.

A report later found that police had not acted despite multiple concerns being raised. It said there had been ‘serious multiple failures’ by police and local authorities.