Shamed former Labour peer Lord Ahmed jailed for 5 years for child sex offences in the 70s
4 February 2022, 14:41 | Updated: 4 February 2022, 18:33
Peer and former politician Lord Nazir Ahmed has been jailed for more than five years for the attempted rape of a young girl and sexually assaulting a boy under 11 in the 1970s.
Lord Ahmed, who has resigned from the House of Lords but retains the title Lord Ahmed of Rotherham, was found guilty at Sheffield Crown Court in January of two counts of attempted rape and one of buggery.
He was convicted of a serious sexual assault against a boy and the attempted rape of a young girl. Sheffield Crown Court heard the repeated sexual abuse happened in Rotherham when he was a teenager.
He was jailed for five years and six months at the same court on Friday by Mr Justice Lavender.
The 64-year-old, who appeared under his real name of Nazir Ahmed, had denied the charges.
A woman told the jury that Ahmed attempted to rape her in the early 1970s, when the defendant was about 16 or 17 years old but she was much younger.
Ahmed was also found guilty of a serious sexual assault against a boy under 11, also in the early 1970s.
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Mr Justice Lavender told Ahmed: "Your actions have had profound and lifelong effects on the girl and the boy, who have lived with what you did to them for between 46 and 53 years.
"Their statements express more eloquently than I ever could how your actions have affected their lives in so many different and damaging ways."
The victim of the attempted rapes read her own victim personal statement in court, saying: "An overwhelming feeling of shame remained with me throughout my childhood and early adult years.
"It was a burden I was made to carry, and it silenced me for many years.
"It is now time for me to pass that burden to him - the paedophile who I know feels no personal shame."
She added that Ahmed had however now been "publicly shamed" for his actions.
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Lord Ahmed resigned from the House of Lords in November 2020 after a conduct committee report concluded he had sexually and emotionally exploited a vulnerable woman.
One of his victims has demanded the government strip him of his title. Only an Act of Parliament can remove his title, but none currently exists.
"That title is bestowed upon people that have got some honour, some dignity, and he's got none of that," the male victim told BBC Newsnight.
The government said Ahmed had resigned from the Lords and was "no longer a member of the legislature".
The call is being supported by crossbench peer Lord Carlisle, the charity Muslim Women's Network UK and Conservative Rother Valley MP Alexander Stafford.
