00:00Neighbours in Rochdale say they feel unsafe as a grooming gang,
00:04a rape gang leader convicted of child rape.
00:07A paedophile continues to live freely on their street
00:10more than a decade after his sentencing.
00:14Despite a deportation order, he remains in the UK due to a legal loophole
00:18and has now reportedly has a police protection at his home,
00:23where, of course, none of the survivors get any such VIP treatment.
00:27I'm joined in the studio by the former Rochdale MP,
00:30Simon Danzok.
00:31Simon, welcome to the show.
00:33This case simply beggars belief.
00:35It just seems to me we've completely lost sight of who the actual victims are.
00:40This individual has full protection, partying the night away,
00:44and those he rapes and abused have to be re-traumatised by this story
00:47every single waking day.
00:49Yes, absolutely.
00:50This rape gang leader is laughing at British justice and at the victims,
00:54there's no doubt about that.
00:55He got a paltry two and a half years.
00:57That's how long he served for raping children.
01:00I mean, let that settle in.
01:01That's the little amount of time that he actually did.
01:05And he's still out there.
01:07He's living in the community.
01:08The victims are traumatised by the fact that he's around in the community.
01:13The neighbours are not happy about it.
01:15He's partying away.
01:16He's got a happy family life, by all accounts,
01:20and yet the victims are being ignored.
01:22He's got police protection, as you point out,
01:24and yet the victims are not even thought of by the authorities.
01:28This can't be right in terms of British justice.
01:31And in terms of that legal loophole, we hear all the time, don't we,
01:34about how people suddenly decide they're not Pakistani.
01:37They suddenly decide, no, I'm not a citizen of Pakistan anymore,
01:41tear up my passport.
01:42It renders the British state toothless,
01:44and it precipitates situations like this
01:46where convicted paedophiles are back among the communities
01:49that they so obviously violated.
01:52Yeah, absolutely.
01:53And you'll recall I was the MP for Rochdale from 2010 to 2017,
01:57and I campaigned for this individual to be sent back to Pakistan.
02:02I campaigned heavily.
02:04Theresa May was the Home Secretary at the time.
02:06I lobbied her personally about this very issue.
02:102014, we got a ruling that he should be sent back.
02:13He appealed it using legal aid,
02:15so the taxpayer were funding him to appeal this issue.
02:192018, we got a ruling again that he should be sent back to Pakistan.
02:23But then, as you point out, he ripped up his passport,
02:27his Pakistani passport, and they're not accepting him on that basis.
02:31That can't be right.
02:32Whatever, we have to put pressure on Pakistan.
02:35We need David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, to be saying to Pakistan,
02:39if you don't take these individuals back,
02:41we will stop all foreign aid and we will stop visas.
02:45There'll be no travel between the two countries until you take this person back.
02:49It's a common sense idea, which means it probably won't happen.
02:53And instead, the Pakistani authorities are actually trying to horse trade
02:57to reopen an airline route between Pakistan and the United Kingdom,
03:02one that was closed in the past because it was deemed a terrorist.
03:05They're trying to bargain for the deportation of paedophiles.
03:09They actually want something back from us.
03:11A strong government would tell them to go whistle.
03:12Yeah, absolutely.
03:13We should tell them to go and whistle.
03:15They're trying to get Pakistan International Airlines,
03:17PIA, going between London and Islamabad.
03:22That's not what we want anyway, not least on safety grounds as well.
03:27So we shouldn't be bargaining on this.
03:29But, you know, Starmer in recent days has been talking tough on this very issue.
03:33Well, the test is here.
03:35If Starmer doesn't send this paedophile back to Pakistan,
03:39then Starmer is all soundbites and no substance.
03:43Do you think that the rape gang inquiry, when it gets going,
03:46it has to make a specific point of deportation of these foreign monsters,
03:52has to be, has to be enshrined in any new deal.
03:56Otherwise, we have a mockery, situations like this,
03:58where we literally have paedophiles living in the same communities as their victims.
04:02Yeah, and some of them have been returned.
04:05That's the good news.
04:06But not this individual and not a number of other individuals.
04:10That has to change.
04:11If this Labour government is serious about tackling this issue,
04:14then this will be the test.
04:16Return this particular paedophile,
04:18and if you don't, you're not taking the issue seriously.
04:21Simon Danzig, thanks for coming to see us today on the CDO.
04:23I appreciate your time.
04:24I sincerely do.
04:25Former Rochdale MP Simon Danzig, thank you.
04:28Appreciate it.
