A Pakistani grooming gang ringleader convicted of 30 child rape offences cannot be deported despite being stripped of his British citizenship.
Shabir Ahmed, 73, a key figure in the Rochdale grooming gang scandal, is due to be released from prison on Thursday but cannot be thrown out of Britain because of a loophole in the Immigration Act 1971.
Even though he has been stripped of his citizenship while serving prison sentences totalling more than 40 years, Ahmed is protected from deportation by a provision in the act that exempts Commonwealth citizens who arrived in the UK before 1973 from removal.
