Legal team fighting deportation of Rochdale grooming scandal men under investigation
Four men led by ringleader Shabir Ahmed, 64, are appealing loss of British citizenship after being convicted of grooming girls as young as 13 who they plied with alcohol and 'passed round' for sex
LAWYERS defending paedophiles facing deportation after the Rochdale grooming scandal are being probed by watchdogs after being blasted by Britain’s top immigration judge.
Mr Justice Bernard McCloskey slammed alleged stalling tactics at appeal tribunals as “disrespect” that was “weakening the rule of law”.
Four men, led by ringleader Shabir Ahmed, 64, were convicted in 2012 of preying on girls as young as 13 in Rochdale, Gtr Manchester, plying them with drink and drugs before they were "passed around" for sex.
The gang are currently appealing against a decision by then then Home Secretary, Theresa May, to strip them of British citizenship as the first step to deporting them.
Ahmed, who first came to the UK in 1967 aged 14 and was described by the judge at his trial as a "violent hypocritical bully", was jailed for 22 years for a string of sex offences including raping a child 30 times over a decade.
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He also appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, claiming his convictions for child sex offences were a conspiracy by police and members of the jury to "scapegoat" Muslims, but he lost the claim.
But it could take years before the four are actually deported as they can now go to the Court of Appeal.
Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk said he was pleased by the Solicitors Regulation Authority probe into the law firm Burton and Burton. It declined to comment.