Former Rotherham peer to face trial again over child sex abuse allegations

Nazir Ahmed, a former Labour peer who was Lord Ahmed of Rotherham before he resigned from the House of Lords last year, went on trial at Sheffield Crown Court earlier this year accused of sexually abusing a younger boy and girl when he was a teenager in the early 1970s.

Judge Jeremy Richardson QC halted the trial in February over the way in which information was supplied by the prosecution to the defence team during the trial.

He said he was ‘shocked and appalled’ that information was being supplied to the defence during the trial, despite the allegations dating back nearly 50 years, the trial being postponed for a year due to Covid and the allegations being first made almost five years ago.

At a brief hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Lord Justice Fulford said: “The case will now be retried at a future date in the crown court.”

The judge added: “These proceedings should continue before a different judge.”

Ahmed, 64, is charged with two counts of attempting to rape a girl under 16, indecent assault of a boy under 14 and raping a boy under 16, all said to have occurred in the early 1970s.

His brothers Mohammed Farouq and Mohammed Tariq were accused of indecent assault of a boy under 14, but were deemed unfit to plead and faced a trial of the facts during the previous criminal proceedings.

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