Article by Maggie Oliver published by The Independent on 14th July 2026

The following article was published by The Independent on 14th July 2026

The release of Rochdale grooming gang ringleader Shabir Ahmed should never have come as a surprise. Yet here we are once again, seemingly closing the stable door after the horse has bolted instead of addressing problems that were obvious years ago.

The Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has now proposed new legislation in response to Ahmed’s case. This legislation would give the home secretary new power to disapply section 7 of the Immigration Act 1971 for serious criminals. “That section provides protections for long-term UK residents,” said Mahmood on Monday, “but it clearly should not act as a bar to removal in cases such as that of Shabir Ahmed.”

This isn’t simply about one offender walking out of prison. It is about a justice system that continues to lurch from crisis to crisis, failing to think ahead, protect victims or hold anyone accountable.

But this is not simply about one offender walking out of prison. It is about a justice system that continues to lurch from crisis to crisis, failing to plan ahead, failing to protect victims – and failing to hold those responsible to account.

Ahmed has now been released on an electronic tag after serving just 14 years of a 41-year sentence imposed following the Rochdale child sexual exploitation case in 2012. 

To the public, and especially to the victims whose lives he devastated, I suspect that is impossible to comprehend. Fourteen years for crimes that caused lifelong trauma to children feels, in their eyes and in mine, wholly inadequate.

The law governing his deportation is almost 50 years old. It existed when he was sentenced in 2012. The implications should have been understood then. 

Those responsible for the wider criminal justice system, including Keir Starmer as Director of Public Prosecutions at the time, should have been aware of the potential consequences. If a legal loophole meant someone convicted of such horrific crimes to be released into our communities after serving only a fraction of their sentence, it should have been addressed —not after public outrage. 

Once again, it seems government has reacted to headlines instead of preventing foreseeable problems. Reactive rather than proactive.

What makes this even more alarming is that Ahmed was refused parole because he continued to present a risk to society, and had shown no remorse. At the most recent rejection, Ahmed was turned down for release by the Parole Board after refusing to accept his guilt and exhibiting “risk factors”, including a belief that it was “acceptable to sexually abuse children”. He had also attempted to seriously injure another prisoner. 

However, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) had no option but to free him on Thursday after 14 years in jail because his 22-year sentence has a fixed automatic release date after two-thirds of the way through.

Victims such as “Ruby” understand exactly what that means. They have lived with the consequences of his crimes every day every single day for more than a decade.

Last week’s national report on the probation service painted an equally disturbing picture. It concluded that probation is under-resourced and, in important respects, unsafe. It identified a shortage of around 2,200 probation officers, warned that electronic tagging cannot be relied upon as a complete safeguard and highlighted significant weaknesses in offender monitoring. These are not simply administrative shortcomings; they are public protection failures.

Then there is the long-running issue of deportation. We have known for years that Pakistan would not accept Ahmed’s return. Why has that only become a crisis at the point of release? 

Immigration planning should have been resolved years before the prison gates opened, not left until the eleventh hour.

But perhaps the greatest failure of all is one that receives far less attention: the victims.

Once a court case is ends, the abused effectively disappear from the system. The Victim Contact Scheme provides updates about key developments, but it is not responsible for their ongoing safety or welfare. Worse still, it is an opt-in service, meaning many victims may not even be informed that their abuser is about to be released. 

No agency takes responsibility for ensuring victims are protected when dangerous offenders leave prison.

We have created extensive systems to manage offenders after release, yet no equivalent system exists to safeguard the victims they leave behind. 

That imbalance says everything about where our priorities lie.

Last week I found myself picking up the phone to an assistant chief constable to ask what practical steps were being taken to protect the victims in Ahmed’s case. Thankfully, she understood the seriousness of the situation and acted immediately. 

But what about every other victim across the country who doesn’t have someone able to make that call? Who speaks for them? Who checks they are safe? Who ensures practical protections are in place?

Far too often, the answer is nobody.

The Rochdale case is the reason I resigned from Greater Manchester Police. It exposed institutional failures that allowed children to be abused while professionals looked the other way. I later became the programme consultant on Three Girls, working alongside the incredible young women whose decision to tell their stories educated millions about grooming gangs, child sexual exploitation and institutional failure. More than a decade later, it remains the case that continues to expose how broken much of our justice system still is.

Britain was once regarded as having one of the finest justice systems in the world. Today, too many parts of it are simply no longer fit for purpose.

Until governments stop firefighting and start reforming, until institutions accept responsibility instead of passing blame, and until victims’ safety is treated as seriously as offenders’ rights, we will continue to make the same mistakes.

Children deserved better -  in Rochdale and across the country. 

They are rightly angry! They are frightened. And once again they feel a forgotten underclass,

Our country simply must do better!