Paedophile Rochdale grooming gang member, 51, who is battling decision to send him back to Pakistan suggests his prosecution was racist during ‘long rant’ at deportation hearing

He also argued he shouldn’t be deported to Pakistan because his son needs a role model.

From the Daily Mail

A member of the Rochdale grooming gang who is battling deportation to Pakistan went on a ‘long rant’ at his hearing today as he denied his crimes and suggested his prosecution was racist.

Adil Khan, 51, appeared before an immigration tribunal today during which he referred to the ‘allegations’ made against him and described it as a ‘laughing matter.’

Khan, speaking through a Miripuri translator, said: ‘I’m today denying it, and I was denying it at the time as well and in the future, never will such a thing happen.’

The translator later described Khan as ‘going on a long rant’.

Khan, along with Qari Abdul Rauf, 52, have been told they will be returned to Pakistan because of their roles in the gang – for which they were convicted of a string of serious sex offences in May 2012. But they keep being allowed appeals, and delays, which is causing anger in Rochdale, as I was told of personally, and causes the survivors distress when they see the men in the local supermarket. 

Khan was questioned by government lawyer, Rory Dunlop QC, about his conviction for conspiracy to engage in sex with a child and trafficking another girl for sexual exploitation. Khan, then in his 40s, impregnated one girl, refusing to accept the child was his until a DNA test was done.

He then met the other girl whom he trafficked to others for sex, using violence when she objected.

Khan said he only knew 10 words of English so could not groom anyone and denied being part the gang.

Mr Dunlop said the judge in Khan’s trial had described the suggestion the prosecutions were racially motivated as ‘nonsense.’

Khan replied; ‘I understand the racial basis and this is the real reason as well. The Home Office falsely levelled an allegation against me.’

Mr Dunlop said: ‘You treated those 15-year-old girls as worthless and undeserving of basic respect and decency because they were not part of your religion or community, is that right?’

And Khan said his family had accepted he made a ‘mistake’ and forgiven him.

He said he had not told his teenage son of his conviction and that son had never asked about what he described as ‘this laughing matter’.

(Yesterday)…Judge Charlotte Welsh asked him how his son might be affected if he was deported from the UK.

Khan, speaking through a Miripuri interpreter, replied: ‘As you know, the father figure is very important in every culture in the world, to be a role model for the child, to tell him or her right from wrong.’

Khan and Qari Abdul Rauf – who can still move freely around Rochdale – were among nine Asian men convicted for sex offences against vulnerable girls in 2012. Police fear as many as 47 victim may have been groomed by the gang.

The appeal hearing against both men continues.