By PTI
LONDON: British Pakistani former House of Lords peer, Nazir Ahmed, was on Wednesday convicted of sexual assault against two children around 50 years ago when he was a teenager.
The 64-year-old politician, who has his roots in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), has been associated with several anti-India protests in the UK over the years.
A jury at Sheffield Crown Court held him guilty of buggery against an 11-year-old boy in Rotherham and also convicted him of twice attempting to rape a minor girl in the 1970s.
Buggery was the legal term for a specific sexual assault at the time of the offences, the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) noted.
Ahmed had denied all the allegations against him.
His brothers Mohammed Tariq, 65, and Mohammed Faroq, 71, who were both found unfit to plead or take part in the trial, were also found to have committed indecent assaults by the jury.
The CPS said the abuse by each of the men was carried out on younger vulnerable children in a series of assaults and was repeated many times when the defendants were teenagers but when their victims were much younger.
We asked the jury to dispassionately consider the evidence against each of these men and decide if they could be sure that our prosecution had proved they committed these crimes, said Rosemary Ainslie, Head of the CPS Special Crime Division.
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, she said.
All three convicted men will be sentenced at a later date.
Back in 2020, Nazir Ahmed had appealed to the Lords’ Conduct Committee against the findings of the independent House of Lords Commissioner for Standards that he had breached the parliamentary Code of Conduct.
The Parliament’s Conduct Committee went on to recommend his expulsion but he retired from the Lords in November 2020 just days ahead of the report.
Ainslie added: 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.
The case also gives an insight into the challenges police and prosecutors face in dealing with huge amounts of information arising from an investigation, and disclosing it properly to the defence to allow a fair trial.
Disclosure failures should not happen.
But the case also shows our determination to admit problems, overcome them and pursue the case, and the court’s ability to ensure the defendants receive a fair trial and their victims see justice.
The complainants in the case have lifelong legal anonymity to prevent them being identified.
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