After serving just eight years of a 26-year sentence, the leader of a sex gang of Britains ‘worst child abuse scandal’ has been released from prison.
Ahdel Ali, 32, and his brother Mubarak lead the gang of seven men, which operated in Telford, Shropshire.
The town was the place of child abuse which reportedly saw up to 1,000 girls, some as young as 11, fall victim to sex gangs over forty years.
Two years ago, one female victim of gangs in the town spoke on Good Morning Britain and described the abuse she suffered as a ‘whirlwind of rape’.
Between 2006 and 2009, the Ali brothers targeted schoolgirls who they controlled as child prostitutes by giving them alcohol, food, and money.
In 2012, the Ali brothers were found guilty of numerous offenses against four underaged girls from 13 to 17, including rape, sexual activity with a child, inciting and controlling child prostitution, and trafficking children for sex.
Despite these offenses, Ali, who was also known as Eddie, was originally given 18 years in custody with a further eight years to serve on license after release, and on Wednesday, the pedophile was released.
In 2018, Ali was wounded with two razor blades in jail, leaving him needing 40 stitches on a wound that ran from his neck to his shoulder.
The news of Ali’s release was confirmed by local Conservative MP Lucy Allan, who has previously called for a Rotherham-style inquiry into the Telford abuse allegations.
Allan previously criticized the decision to release Ali’s brother in 2017 before he was recalled to prison a year later for breaching the terms of his license. He had been handed a 14-year-term in jail.
“On this occasion the authorities handled the matter correctly, informing relevant parties, including victims, of the tagging and the exclusion from the local area,” Allan told the Shropshire Star.
“I am concerned that the law still allows for early release of serious sexual offenders, however, since the sentencing of Ahdel Ali and Mubarak Ali the law has changed to prevent this in future and I am proud to have played my part in this change in the law.”
“Serious sex offenders released on the license are closely monitored and can be returned to prison if they breach strict conditions such as curfews and exclusion zones,” the Ministry of Justice stated.
During the Ali brothers’ trial, the Stafford Crown Court heard the duo groomed two girls, aged 15 and 16, for sex before persuading them to work as prostitutes for them in 2008.
The Ali brothers were found guilty, a total of 24 offenses, including controlling child prostitution, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation.
Five other men from the Telford area pleaded guilty to charges they faced prior to the start of their trials and were jailed for between two-and-a-half and seven years.
In 2018, one of the victims spoke anonymously on Good Morning Britain to Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid about their ordeal.
The woman, going by the name of ‘Holly’, described how she was sold ‘countless times’ for sex.
“I was abused from the ages of 14-18, my abuse started with boys my own age, who went on to sell my phone number to older men,” she said. “And from there it was just a whirlwind of rape every day basically. I was going into the doctors and the youth sexual health clinic to get the morning after pill, probably twice a week, and nobody even questioned anything”.
“I had two abortions, still nothing was said to me. I was in cars that were stopped by the police and they asked me no questions of why I was there with a much older man… it got to the point where I tried to commit suicide, and still nobody asked me any questions about what was going on in my life and why I was reacting the way I was reacting”.
“The way I got out of it was by actually leaving Telford and isolating myself from my friends and family and everybody else that I knew,” she added. “The reason why it went on for so long was that the men were blackmailing me saying that they were going to rape my family members or burn my house down”.
When asked how many men she thinks we’re responsible for the abuse she suffered, she said she ‘couldn’t even put a figure on it, it’s that many.’
“The main abusers, I’d say seven, but I was being sold every day, countless times, for four years,” she said.