Five of the six members of one of the most depraved Rotherham grooming gangs have been released or have parole hearings coming up, MailOnline can reveal.
Just seven years after the gang was put behind bars for sexually abusing two girls they plied with alcohol and cannabis in 2017 in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, most of the men are free or have imminent parole hearings.
The town was at the heart of the sex abuse scandal and a number of vile gangs were snared as part of a major police operation investigating the abuse and trafficking of up to 1,400 girls in the area.
But despite widespread revulsion for their sickening crimes, three members of one Rotherham gang, who were jailed for offences that took place between 1999 and 2001 in the city, have already been released on licence.
This is despite the three monsters who sexually abused young girls – Tayab Dad, Amjad Ali, and Matloob Hussain – being handed jail sentences of between 10 and 13 years for rape and sexual intercourse with a girl under 13.
Two other members of the gang – Nasar Dad and Mohammed Sadiq – have been referred to the Parole Board and will be listed within the next few weeks for hearings that will be heard within months.
A three person parole panel has the power to recommend the two men be released. If freed, this will just leave Basharat Dad, the ringleader of the vile group, who was caged for 20-years.
The news will shock victims and pour fuel on the acrimonious debate that has sparked a series of national and international claims and counter-claims about the role of Sir Keir in the prosecution of sex abuse offenders.
Tayab Dad (top left), Amjad Ali (bottom right), and Matloob Hussain (bottom left) have already been released. Just the ringleader, Basharat Dad (top right), will remain behind bars if Nasar Dad (top centre) and Mohammed Sadiq (bottom centre) are freed by the parole board in upcoming hearings
Amid the on-going calls for a public inquiry into the scandal, multi-billionaire Elon Musk accused Sir Keir on his X platform of being ‘complicit in the rape of Britain’ during his tenure as director of public prosecutions (DPP) for failing to tackle grooming gangs.
Senior Conservatives and Reform UK MPs have also spent the week calling for a national inquiry into child sexual exploitation.
But at a press conference today Sir Keir hit back and attacked politicians and activists ‘spreading lies and misinformation’ over grooming gangs.
He said: ‘Those who are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible are not interested in victims, they’re interested in themselves.’
He said the online debate had ‘crossed a line’, resulting in threats against MPs, including Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips.
Sir Keir went on to accuse the Tories of ‘jumping on a bandwagon’ to gain attention.
Describing child sexual exploitation as ‘utterly sickening’, Sir Keir defended his record in office as DPP – saying he tackled the issue ‘head on’.
While DPP, Sir Keir introduced a special prosecutor for child abuse and sexual exploitation to oversee convictions against grooming gangs.
Labour Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips has formally rejected repeated requests for a Home Office-led inquiry into historic child abuse in Oldham after the town’s council voted on the matter earlier this year.
She believes the council will be better placed to run any inquiry but victims of widespread sexual abuse in the region have criticised the government’s response.
Sarah Wilson was groomed and raped by paedophiles in Rotherham for five years from the age of 11 – with one attack taking place in a school playground.
She wrote on X: ‘Jess Phillips needs to hang her head in shame!!! Anyone who denies an independent investigation has a lot to hide.’
The Parole Board confirmed the two new Rotherham gang parole hearings to MailOnline.
A spokesperson for the Parole Board said: ‘We can confirm the parole review of Nasar Dad has been referred to the Parole Board by the Secretary of State for Justice and is following standard processes.
‘Parole Board decisions are solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community.’
The spokesperson added: ‘We can confirm the parole review of Mohammed Sadiq has been referred to the Parole Board by the Secretary of State for Justice and is following standard processes.
‘Parole Board decisions are solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community.’
A source with knowledge of the case said: ‘It is astounding that five out of six members of this gang – who systematically abused two young and vulnerable girls – could be walking the streets again in early 2025.
‘Most of them have served just seven years in jail before being quietly released back into society. It seems wrong that they have a second chance when their victims have to carry around the trauma all their lives.’
The child sex ring, which included three brothers, was jailed for a total of 81-and-a-half years after five of the men were convicted at Sheffield Crown Court
Basharat Dad may be the last gang member remaining in prison following parole hearings for two of his gang mates. He has yet to be referred to the parole board
in February 2017 of sexually exploiting two young girls at flats in Eastwood, Rotherham.
The offences date back to the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the girls were given alcohol and cannabis and intimidated into performing sex acts.
A sixth man admitted before the trial to sexually abusing one of the victims.
Brothers Basharat Dad, then 32, Nasar Dad, 36, and Tayab Dad, 34, were convicted of 16 offences between them.
Basharat was jailed for 20 years after being convicted of six counts of rape, five of indecent assault and one of false imprisonment.
Nasar was jailed for 14-and-a-half years for one count of rape, inciting indecency with a child and false imprisonment and Tayab was given 10 years behind bars for rape.
Matloob, 42, and Mohammed Sadiq, 40, were both found guilty of sexual intercourse with a girl under 13.
Hussain and Sadiq were both jailed for 13 years.
Amjad Ali, 38, of Worksop, admitted having sexual intercourse with a girl under 13. He was jailed for 11 years.
The court heard Girl A had sexual relationships with Basharat and Nassar Dad, and would spend time ‘chilling’ with them in the back room of their father’s firework shop.
The family owned a flat located above a precinct of shops in Fitzwilliam Road and she had consensual sex with both brothers twice at the flat.
She was also raped twice at the flat by Basharat and Nassar on two separate occasions.
Prosecutor Sarah Drake told the court that Girl A reported the offences carried out against her by the gang when she was 12-years-old, but no further action was taken against any of the men.
She was interviewed again about all of the allegations in 2015. Under police interview in 2001, Girl A described how Basharat and Nassar made her feel like she was a ‘prostitute’. On one occasion Basharat and Nassar locked the terrified 12-year-old girl.
On one occasion Basharat and Nassar locked the terrified 12-year-old girl in the flat overnight, described as being extremely dirty, with no electricity or running water and she was left there until her mother came to rescue her the following day.
‘The fact they could lock her in a flat in those conditions and walk away shows the contempt they had for her,’ Ms Drake said, adding that their contempt towards Girl A was shown again under police interview in 2015 when Basharat described her as being a ‘slag’.
He told police: ‘She’s dirty, she will go with anyone.’
And when interviewed by police about their sexual relationship in 2001 Basharat told officers: ‘Rape, that’s not rape, she’s done that with a 26-year-old.’
Ms Drake said: ‘It was that contempt that made him feel like he could do that to her.’
Girl B met all of the Dad brothers through a school friend when she was 13. She too would be taken to the backroom of the firework shop to ‘chill’.
Ms Drake told the court: ‘You can be sure that Girl B went to the firework shop and had sex with Basharat in that firework shop after he had worn her down and taken away her freedom to choose.
‘She wanted to chill but he was so persistent that she couldn’t say no because he would go on and on until he got what he wanted and that if he didn’t have sex it was a ‘s*** night’
On one occasion Girl B was taken to a flat in Gleadless, Sheffield by Basharat.
The court was told how the 13-year-old was plied with cannabis and alcohol, and that every time she would finish a drink Basharat would pour another one into her glass. This led to Girl B being so drunk that she vomited and had to be put to bed.
The following morning Girl B woke up with both Basharat and his brother Tayib, who was not there when she passed out, in bed with her and quickly realised she had been raped.
Ms Drake said: ‘The Crown says something sexual happened in that bed, she was in no position to consent. She was, to use the colloquial phrase, out of it.’
Girl A met Hussein when she was hanging around in Rotherham town centre when she was aged just 12 in 2000. She had sex with him once in her sister’s bed when she was the same age.
She reported the incident to police in 2001, but at that time she told officers she had sex with Hussein, then aged 25, in his car instead. After being questioned by police Hussein was released without charge in 2001.
Tayab Dad and Amjad Ali were automatically released on licence half-way through their sentence.
Under the current legal system, a prisoner serving a determinant sentence for a fixed length of time, will be released under the supervision of the probation service after serving half their term.
Hussain was directed for release in May 2024 after a parole hearing and has been freed on licence.
Basharat Dad, the gang ringleader, has not yet been referred to the Parole Board.
At the conclusion of the trial in January 2017, there was a shout of ‘Justice’ from one of the victims, while Ali and Tayab shouted the Muslim creed ‘Allahu Akbar’.
Temporary Detective Chief Inspector Martin Tate said later: ‘Today’s hearing is the culmination of a lengthy and complex investigation into the sexual abuse and exploitation of vulnerable children in Rotherham nearly two decades ago.
‘This is our third significant inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham and with the lengthy jail terms handed down to these individuals today, we have now put 18 criminals behind bars for over 80 years.’
Nasar Dad (pictured) has been referred to the parole board and will be listed within the next few weeks for a hearing that will be heard within months
Previously, MailOnline reported that three out of nine members of another notorious Rotherham grooming gang are using citizenship loopholes and claims to rights of a family life to mount legal challenges bidding to stay in the UK.
Two of these, Qari Abdul Rauf, 54, and Adil Khan, 53, have been repeatedly told by the courts they will be deported to their native Pakistan – yet have pursued legal battles to remain, making the claim that they are now ‘stateless’ after renouncing their Pakistani citizenship.
Fellow convict Abdul Aziz, known in the same gang as ‘The Master’, was also served with a deportation order after being released from jail – yet he managed to abandon his Pakistani citizenship just before a crucial court ruling and was told by British officials he stay after all.
Operation Stovewood is a major police investigation into child sexual abuse and exploitation which took place in Rotherham, between 1997 and 2013.
Cases related to the operation – the largest ever conducted in the UK into child sex abuse – are still coming to court.
