UK: Judge orders victim of Pakistani grooming gang to drop request for deportation of her rapists

A woman who was abused and raped by a Pakistani gang as a young child must have her victim impact statement removed from a request to deport her abusers, a judge has ruled.

Last week, seven British-Pakistani men were sentenced to a total of 106 years in prison – an average of 15 years each – for the repeated sexual abuse of two young girls in Rotherham over a five-year period in the early 2000s. The girls, who spent time in the care system, were aged 11 and 15 respectively when the abuse began.

“These seven men deliberately preyed on two young girls who they knew were vulnerable and, using drugs and alcohol, exploited them for their own sexual gratification,” said Zoe Becker, of the Crown Prosecution Service. “The cruelty and abuse inflicted on the victims by these defendants was appalling and continues to have a lasting impact on their lives.”

During the sentencing hearing at Sheffield Crown Court last week, the younger of the two victims made a statement from the witness box, addressing the defendants.

“You ruined my life, but I won’t let you ruin my future,” said the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons. “I am a fighter and a survivor. I am thriving and fighting. You can never and will never take anything away from me again. 22 years ago you first started taking care of me, and 10 years ago I started my fight for justice. You stole my childhood, now I am taking your freedom, I am your karma,” she concluded.

However, GB News found that the speech had been heavily censored by the judge, with several sections deleted due to the restrictions imposed on them. “I would like to request that after the conviction and release of Rudy and Showabe, they be deported back to Pakistan as this is where they came from and came here to exploit children,” the original uncensored conclusion of the statement read.

“Rudy” is Mohammed Amar, who was convicted of two counts of sexual assault and sentenced to 14 years in prison. “Showabe” is Mohammed Siyab, who was convicted of two counts of rape, one count of trafficking and one count of sexual intercourse with a girl under 13, and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Siyab’s English proficiency was so poor that, despite having lived in the UK for decades, he needed an Urdu interpreter in court.

“If someone was not born here and is here to exploit children, then after the punishments he should be deported,” the woman said. GB News. “There is nothing that says they will stop exploiting children. We can deport them and let their own country deal with it. The State Department should absolutely punish Pakistan fully if they refuse to accept rapists. Those men should be deported or Pakistan should restrict their visas.”

Despite the deportation of criminal foreigners serving sentences of more than 12 months, as required under the UK Borders Act 2007, many are fighting their claims through the European Court of Human Rights. Others, such as Qari Abdul Rauf, a leader of the Rochdale grooming gangs, have not been deported because their home countries refused to take them back. Officials have blocked new powers under the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 to impose visa restrictions on countries that refuse to take back their offenders.

Commenting on the X case, Conservative Party leadership candidate Robert Jenrick MP criticised the judge’s conduct. “Foreign sex abusers who came here and joined grooming gangs to exploit young girls clearly need to be deported,” he argued. “The victims will not be silenced.”

While Lee Anderson MP, the Reform representative for Ashfield, noted that grooming gangs have been raping “young English girls” with impunity because police and social services have been “very slow” to act. “It now seems that even when these vile perverts are caught, our justice system still puts the perpetrators before the victims. No ifs or buts, if they were born in another country, send them straight back,” he added.