Lord Nazir Ahmed jailed for child sex offences

A disgraced colleague convicted of attempting to rape a young girl and sexually assaulting a boy under the age of 11 in the 1970s has been jailed for more than five years.

In January, former politician Lord Nazir Ahmed was found guilty of sexually abusing two children as a teenager in Rotherham.

The 64-year-old, who still holds the title of Lord Ahmed of Rotherham despite leaving the House of Lords, was found guilty of two counts of attempted rape and aggravated sexual assault.

At Sheffield Crown Court, a woman told jurors how Ahmed tried to rape her in the early 1970s when the defendant was around 16 or 17, but she was much younger.

Ahmed was also convicted of aggravated sexual assault against a boy under the age of 11 in the early 1970s.

On Friday, Mr Justice Lavender sentenced Ahmed to five years and six months.

The judge told Ahmed: “Your actions had a profound and lifelong impact on the girl and boy who lived between the ages of 46 and 53 with what you did to them.

“Your testimony expresses more eloquently than I ever could how your actions have impacted her life in so many different and detrimental ways.”

The victim of the attempted rape read her personal testimony in court and said: “An overwhelming sense of shame accompanied me throughout my childhood and early adult years.

“It was a burden to bear and it silenced me for many years.

“Now is the time for me to put that burden on him – the pedophile I know has no personal shame.”

She added that Ahmed has now been “publicly shamed” for his actions.

Ahmed’s two older brothers, Mohammed Farouq, 71, and Mohammed Tariq, 66, have also been charged with indecent assault in relation to the same boy whom Ahmed abused.

The men were both found unfit to stand trial, but a jury found they had committed the alleged acts.

They both received outright discharges after the judge said the other two options were not appropriate in the case – a hospital order or a surveillance order.

A personal statement by the male applicant, read in court, stated that the sexual abuse by the three men “affected me on a daily basis” so that he could not show affection for his own children.

He said: “I buried the abuse and carried it with me alone for years.

“I am ashamed of what these men did to me.

“This isn’t about revenge, this is about justice.”

In mitigation, Imran Khan QC said Ahmed had “devoted his life to public service” and that his “fall from grace” had been “in the full public splendour”, including a campaign to have his title stripped.

Mr Khan said: “That very good reputation he had is gone.”

The judge said that under the law, the sentence must be equivalent to the sentence that would have been imposed at the time the offense was committed, and to sentence Ahmed to three and a half years in prison for aggravated sexual assault, imposing two concurrent two-year sentences for each of the attempted rapes.

Mr Justice Lavender also adjourned the case for six weeks to see if Ahmed could pay the prosecution costs.

During the trial, the jury was played a phone conversation between the two complainants, made by the woman after going to the police in 2016.

Tom Little QC, prosecutor, told the jury the call was initiated by the man who emailed the woman and said: “I have evidence against this paedophile.”

Former Labor Member Ahmed resigned from the House of Lords in November 2020 after reading the contents of a report by the Conduct Committee which found he had sexually assaulted a vulnerable woman who sought his help.

The report made him the first peer to be recommended for expulsion, but he resigned before this could be implemented.

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