A ringleader of the notorious Rochdale grooming gang has built a house in his native Pakistan – despite receiving £285,000 of taxpayers’ money in a battle against being deported.
Furious neighbours of Abdul Rauf in Rochdale say they are terrified to let their children out of sight after the 55-year-old was released having served just two-and-a-half years of a six-year prison sentence.
The convicted paedophile was told he would be deported back to Pakistan after completing his sentence in 2014 – but he remains living in the Greater Manchester town more than a decade later.
Rauf claims to be stateless after renouncing his Pakistani nationality – however his claim to have cut ties have now been thrown into doubt.
Neighbours in the remote village which he left to move to Britain in the 1990s have revealed that the father-of-five has paid for a house to be built there.
They said his intention was to live in it when he is finally kicked out of the UK.
They also contradicted his claim during his battle against deportation that he would be at risk in Pakistan due to ‘public opinion’ because of his convictions, saying his family remains ‘influential’ there.
Rauf was one of a nine-strong gang of Asian men who sexually assaulted 47 girls, some as young as 12, after plying them with drink and drugs.
Rochdale grooming gang member Abdul Rauf, 55, has paid to have a house built in his home village in Pakistan despite continuing to fight deportation from Britain 11 years after being freed from prison
Furious neighbours of Rochdale grooming gang ringleader Abdul Rauf (pictured) say they are terrified to let their children out of sight – after discovering he’s still living freely on their street, having used a legal loophole to dodge deportation
Their conviction in 2012 shocked the country and sparked years of campaigning by victims which earlier this month finally prompted Sir Keir Starmer to agree to a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal.
Rauf – who moved to the UK in 1997 – lost an appeal against being stripped of British nationality in 2018.
But he appealed against deportation on the grounds he had already renounced his Pakistani citizenship and would therefore be rendered stateless.
Rauf has received a staggering £285,000 in legal aid as he bids to avoid being thrown out of the country, it emerged earlier this year.
Despite losing the case, he remains in Rochdale where he works as a takeaway delivery driver as Pakistan won’t accept him without valid travel documents.
But inquiries by MailOnline in his home village of Charhoi in Pakistan-administered Kashmir suggest he has retained close links.
According to villagers who know the family, he has sent back money to fund the construction of a new house near the bazaar with the intention of living there himself.
They said he initially allowed his elder brother to live there with his family – but had now asked him to vacate the building.
The convicted paedophile, 55, was one of nine men jailed in 2012 for raping and trafficking vulnerable girls across northern England in a case that shocked the country. Rauf was told he would be deported to Pakistan in 2014 after serving just two-and-a-half years of a six-year prison sentence – but he remains in the UK more than a decade later
Locals in the village of Charhoi in Pakistan-administered Kashmir say convicted paedophile Abdul Rauf has funded the construction of a house with the intention of living there when he is finally deported
According to villager in Charhoi, Rochdale grooming gang member Abdul Rauf’s conviction would not be widely discussed if he is sent back as his family is ‘influential’
‘His brother lived there for few months but came back to his old home when his children told him to leave Abdul Rauf’s home and go back to his old one,’ the resident said.
As part of his 2022 appeal against deportation, Rauf claimed that if he was sent back to Pakistan ‘I would be at risk due to the public opinion of the criminal conviction’ and would not be ‘protected’ by the authorities there.
But a villager cast doubt on his claim, saying that while locals knew about the case, he would be safe as a result of his family ties.
‘Since they are influential and financially strong people in their street, this topic was not much discussed,’ the resident said.
Before his conviction, Rauf was seen as a pillar of Rochdale’s Muslim community because of his role as a ‘qari’, a cleric who reads from the Koran.
But the men’s trial heard how he trafficked a 15-year-old girl for sex, driving her to secluded areas to have sex with her in his taxi and ferrying her to a flat in Rochdale where he and others had sex with her.
This week neighbours of the terraced house in Rochdale where Rauf still lives accused him of throwing parties with ‘loads of people’ coming and going.
One woman said she was told by police that he had ‘done his time’ when she demanded that they remove him.
Angie Harrison, 45, a mum of two girls aged seven and eight, said: ‘He has loads of people there, having parties and we don’t like the look of the people who come.’
Rauf with three other members of the Rochdale grooming gang, Shabir Ahmed (top left), Adil Khan (top right) and Abdul Aziz (bottom left)
Furious residents in Rochdale say Rauf is back living in a terraced house in the same area where his victims were targeted – and throwing parties with ‘loads of people’ coming and going
Locals spoke of their disgust that he is still allowed to live in the same town where he carried out his vile crimes.
One mother, who lives just a few doors away, said: ‘Nobody can believe that monster is still here, after what he did to those young girls.
‘It’s disgusting. What is the country coming to? Why is he still here?
‘He was living in that house when he was offending, my kids used to go around and play with his kids.’
The case comes amid anger at ministers’ failure to deport dangerous foreign criminals.
Another member of the paedophile ring, Adil Khan, 55, also remains in Rochdale despite losing an appeal against deportation as he also renounced Pakistani citizenship.
One of the ringleaders of the gang, Abdul Aziz, 54, cannot be deported because he renounced his Pakistani citizenship before being stripped of British nationality.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy is currently understood to be leading discussions with Pakistan in a bid to secure the return of Rauf and Khan.
Just last week a review into the grooming gangs scandal by Dame Louise Casey criticised officials for ‘shying away’ from ‘uncomfortable’ questions about the ethnicity of rapists preying on young girls.
In one case, the Whitehall troubleshooter revealed she had found the word ‘Pakistani’ Tippexed out of a child sex abuse file.
