Lord Nazir jailed for 5 years in child abuse case

British-Pakistani former peer convicted of offences committed in ‘70s

LONDON:

Former Labour peer Lord Nazir Ahmed of Rotheram was sentenced by a UK court on Friday to five-and-a-half years in prison for abusing two children in the 1970s.

British-Pakistani Lord Nazir was found guilty in January of a serious sexual assault against a boy and the attempted rape of a young girl. The abuse took place in Rotherham when he was a teenager, Sheffield Crown Court heard, BBC reported.

Passing sentence, Justice Lavender said his actions had had "profound and lifelong effects" on the victims. The attack on the boy, who was aged under 11 at the time, also happened during the same period.

“Your actions have had profound and lifelong effects on the girl and the boy, who have lived with what you did to them for between 46 and 53 years.

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The 64-year-old had denied the charges, calling them a "malicious fiction", but a phone recording of a conversation between the two victims in 2016 showed they were not "made-up".“Their statements express more eloquently than I ever could how your actions have affected their lives in so many different and damaging ways.”

The judge said the offences were "so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified".