Shabir Ahmed moved from bail hostel after location posted online by user who dubbed grooming gang leader as 'agent of Satan'

Shabir Ahmed has been moved from his bail hostel after the location of the Rochdale grooming gang ringleader was posted on social media.

A user posted the location of the Lancashire hostel on X, dubbing Ahmed an "agent of Satan."

They added they were disclosing the precise location of the hotel for "safety reasons."

The 73-year-old has been transferred to an alternative location by the Ministry of Justice.

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A Ministry of Justice spokesman told The Telegraph: "Public protection is our top priority. This offender is subject to the toughest supervision possible and he will be on the sex offender’s register for life.

"He is also banned from contacting his victims, or any child or young person, and has his movements tracked."

Ahmed was released on July 2 after serving 14 years since his conviction in 2012 for rape and sexual offences against girls, some as young as 12.

He had been sentenced to 19 years in prison.

Labour has been examining ways to deport him since his release last week, as the 1971 law forbids the removal of Commonwealth citizens who arrived in the UK more than 50 years ago.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is expected to detail a way to close the loophole in the Immigration Act which prevents his deportation even though he has already been stripped of his British citizenship.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman acknowledged earlier this week that changing the law was only the first step in deporting Ahmed.

The spokesman said: "The country of origin must agree to take these vile criminals back and that’s why we’re working across government to explore every option in this case."

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Asked if that included the possibility of refusing to issue visas, the spokesman said: “I think we’ve been clear that all options remain on the table where countries don’t co-operate on the return of their nationals.”

GB News understands Pakistan is not expected to accept Ahmed.

Islamabad is reportedly demanding the extradition of two political dissidents from the UK in order to do so.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: "If they don’t take him back, we can say: well, we’re simply going to stop or restrict issuing visas to people from Pakistan to come here."

Mr Philp continued: "That, by the way, should apply to any country around the world who doesn’t take back its own citizens who are criminals or here illegally."

Victims’ minister Catherine Atkinson told the BBC that the threat of visa restrictions has produced results before.

She said the Home Secretary "has been absolutely clear that this Government will take action to see Shabir Ahmed removed, and we’ve seen the success that she has had when it comes to removals in previous cases".

"I think she threatened visa penalties for Angola, Namibia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo unless they took back illegal immigrants and four months later, all three were co-operating."

In the meantime, Ahmed is subject to electronic tagging, geographical exclusion zones for Oldham, where he lived, and Rochdale, where he committed many of his crimes.

He has registered accommodation with 24/7 supervision, and a ban on associating with contacts.

A trio of Labour MPs in the northwest have all written to Justice Secretary David Lammy urging him to extend the rapist’s exclusion zone to cover the whole of the North West of England and Yorkshire.

Jim McMahon (Oldham West), Paul Waugh (Rochdale) and Elsie Blundell (Heywood and Middleton North), all demanded that he be banned from the North of England as he remained a "dangerous and unrepentant risk to society".

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