- Friday, April 19, 2024
By: Pramod Thomas
A former Labour peer has been found guilty of sexual offences against two children in the 1970s, reported the BBC.
Lord Ahmed of Rotherham 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 that happened in Rotherham when he was a teenager, the report added.
Ahmed, 64, whose real name is Nazir Ahmed, had denied the charges.
Judge Justice Lavender will decide later when Lord Ahmed will be sentenced.
According to prosecutor Tom Little QC, Lord Ahmed had attempted to rape the girl in the early 1970s, when the defendant was aged 16 or 17 but she was much younger.
During the same period, the attack on the boy, who was aged under 11 also happened.
Lord Ahmed claimed the allegations were a “malicious fiction”. However, a phone recording of a 2016 conversation between the two victims showed they were not “made-up or concocted”.
The woman’s call was prompted by an email from the male victim saying: “I have evidence against that paedophile,” the jury previously heard.
Lord Ahmed was charged along with his two older brothers, Mohammed Farouq, 71, and Mohammed Tariq, 65, but both were deemed unfit to stand trial.
Both had faced charges of indecent assault against the same boy abused by Lord Ahmed.
According to the BBC report, 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 who sought his help.
The inquiry into his behaviour followed a BBC Newsnight investigation.
The report made him the first peer to be recommended for expulsion but he resigned before this could be implemented.
“By these verdicts, the jury has clearly decided that no matter the delay between the offences and the trial, and the defences raised, they could be sure that the accounts of the victims were credible and true,” Rosemary Ainslie, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s special crime division, was quoted as saying by the BBC.
“One of these defendants held a position of power, influence and responsibility for some time in the House of Lords but this case clearly illustrates that where there is sufficient evidence, even in challenging cases, the CPS will bring a prosecution, put evidence before a jury and see rightful convictions.”
