Labour Peer Jailed For Attempted Child Rape And Sexual Assault
Topics: no-article-matching, Politics
Poppy Bilderbeck
Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: no-article-matching, Politics
Ex Labour peer, Lord Ahmed of Rotherham, has been convicted for the sexual abuse of two children.
Last month, the 64-year-old was found guilty of two offences from the 1970s, which included the sexual assault of a boy and attempted rape of a girl.
Sheffield Crown Court heard that Lord Ahmed - real name Nazir Ahmed - committed the offences when he was a teenager and that they took place in Rotherham.
He has since been sentenced to prison for five years and six months.
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The two attacks happened during the same time period in the early 1970s, BBC reports.
The court heard that Ahmed attempted to rape a girl who was much younger than him when he was 16 or 17 years old. The boy the former Labour peer attacked is reported as having been under the age of 11 at the time of the assault.
Ahmed maintained he was not guilty, branding the charges as 'malicious fiction'. However, the two victims' claims were proven to not be 'made-up' by a recording of a phone conversation which took place between the pair in 2016.
Mr Justice Lavender resolved that Lord Ahmed's actions had had 'profound and lifelong effects' on the two victims.
Despite noting how the sentencing was made 'extremely difficult' by the fact Ahmed was a child himself when he committed the crimes, alongside how 'long ago' the attacks took place, the judge concluded that the offences 'were so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified'.
In November 2020, seven years after Ahmed stepped down from the Labour Party, it was revealed that a vulnerable woman who had gone to the former Labour peer for help had been 'emotionally and sexually exploited' by him. Before he could be expelled over the conduct committee report, Ahmed resigned from the House of Lords.
However, Ahmed has still maintained his title, even despite his recent conviction.
One of the victims of his attacks, who was a young boy when he was sexually assaulted by the Ahmed, has since called for him to be stripped of his title.
The male victim concluded: 'You try to lead a normal life, but you can never lead a normal life. I'm demanding the government take that peerage away from him. He's a convicted paedophile and there's no justice in that.'
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000, 8am–10pm Monday to Friday, 9am–6pm weekends. If you are a child seeking advice and support, call Childline for free on 0800 1111
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact the Rape Crisis England and Wales helpline on 0808 802 9999 between 12pm–2.30pm and 7pm– 9.30pm every day. Alternatively, you can contact Victim Support free on 08 08 16 89 111 available 24/7, every day of the year, including Christmas
Male Survivors Partnership is available to support adult male survivors of sexual abuse and rape. You can contact the organisation on their website or on their free helpline 0808 800 5005, open 9am–5pm Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays; 8am–8pm Tuesdays and Thursdays; 10am–2pm Saturdays