Lord Nazir jailed for attempted rape, sexual assault
A peer and former Labour councillor has been jailed for five years and six months for the attempted rape of a young girl and sexually assaulting a boy under 11.
Lord Nazir Ahmed, 64, was found guilty at Sheffield Crown Court last month of two counts of attempted rape and one of buggery while he was a teenager in the 1970s in Rotherham.
Ahmed, who was made a peer in 1998 on Tony Blair’s recommendation, quit the House of Lords in 2020 after a different woman said he had sexually exploited her in 2017, but as a life peer he retains the title Lord Ahmed of Rotherham.
The jury heard from a woman who said Ahmed attempted to rape her in the early 1970s, when he was about 16 or 17 years old, but she was much younger. He was also found guilty of a serious sexual assault against a boy under 11, also in the early 1970s.
Victim: ‘The paedophile feels no personal shame’
Jailing the peer, Mr Justice Lavender said: “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.”
Reading her own victim statement in court, the female victim said: “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 said Ahmed has now been “publicly shamed” for his actions.
Ahmed’s two older brothers also assaulted boy
Ahmed’s two older brothers, Mohammed Farouq, 71, and Mohammed Tariq, 66, were also charged with indecent assault in relation to the boy Ahmed abused. Both brothers were deemed unfit to stand trial, but a jury found they did commit the acts they were accused of.
They were given absolute discharges, as the judge said the only other options – a hospital order or a supervision order – would not be appropriate in this case.
In a victim statement, the man who was sexually abused by the three men said it had “affected me on a daily basis” and he was unable to show affection to his own children.
He said: “I buried the abuse and carried it with me on my own for years and years. “I feel shame because of what these men did to me. This is not about revenge, this is about justice.” The man demanded the government strip Lord Ahmed of his title. Only an act of parliament can remove his title, but none currently exists.
The court heard how the female victim went to the police about Ahmed in 2016, and she then spoke to the male victim after he emailed her saying: “I have evidence against that paedophile.”
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 glare of publicity”, including a campaign for him to be stripped of his title.
Mr Khan said: “That very good reputation he had has gone.” The judge said legal guidelines meant the sentence had to be in line with what would have been imposed when the offences were committed.
Ahmed received three and a half years for the buggery offence and two concurrent sentences of two years for each of the attempted rapes. The peer resigned from the Lords in November 2020 after reading the contents of a conduct committee report that found he sexually assaulted a vulnerable woman who sought his help.
It was the first time a peer had been recommended for expulsion, but he resigned before he could be kicked out.
