Bilal Shinwari, 20, charged over child sexual exploitation
Bilal Shinwari, 20, is accused of two counts of rape of a girl under 16, conspiracy to rape a girl under 16, and conspiracy to rape a woman over 16.
Seven other Afghan men have already been charged with a total of 40 similar offences following an investigation into group-based child exploitation in Norwich.
The charges relate to two victims who were in their early-to-mid teens when the alleged offences took place.
The other seven men, who are all refugees, pleaded not guilty to all charges during their last appearance at Norwich Crown Court on June 19.
Five of the men entered the country on small boats while the other two arrived concealed in vehicles.
They remain in custody ahead of a trial set for January 11, 2027.
Shinwari's alleged offences are said to have occurred between August 2023 and May 2025.
The 20-year-old was arrested in Ireland, where he has been in custody since May 22, 2026.
Following a legal process, he was returned to the UK on July 3 and appeared at Norwich Magistrates’ Court on July 4, where he was remanded into custody.
He is set to appear at Norwich Crown Court on July 31 for a plea hearing.
Shinwari entered via a small boat on November 28, 2022.
Norfolk Police are urging anyone with information about this investigation to come forward.
Reports can be made online or by calling 101, referencing 'Op Highwood26.'
All the suspects in this case are confirmed not to have lived in asylum hotels in Norfolk, and none of the alleged offences are said to have taken place in such hotels.
The police have ensured that further advice and support for those who have experienced child sexual abuse or exploitation is available.
UK: Muslim migrant caught ‘red-handed’ trying to rape woman, police let him go
Meanwhile, according to Reuters, “British police said on Monday they had arrested 12 people after a suspected threat directed towards an Islamic event at the weekend, as part of an investigation which they described as ‘extreme right-wing terrorism-related.'”
No terrorism or attacks on innocent people are justified; it’s good that the “extreme right-wing terrorists,” if that is indeed what they were, were arrested. Here again, however, we see the two-tier justice system of shattered, staggering, dhimmi Britain in action. If Ramzi Barkat had been an “extreme right-winger” who was caught in the act of rape, do you think the British police would have let him go? Neither do I.
'Predator’ caught ‘red-handed’ trying to rape woman near Buckingham Palace let go by police
by Ted Hennessey, Independent, July 10, 2026:
A “predator” who tried to rape a woman near Buckingham Palace was let go by police for a year despite being caught “red-handed”, a judge said.
Ramzi Barkat, 54, tailed the woman, who was alone, out of St James’s Park in the early hours of September 7 2024.
After his attempts to flirt with her were rejected, he tackled her to ground, grabbed her wrists and “straddled” her, His Honour Judge Justin Cole said.
The judge said that Barkat, who was born in Algeria, “sought to take advantage of a lone vulnerable woman” and “acted like a predator”.
Three “brave” young soldiers who were passing by stopped the attempted attack when they heard the woman’s screams, Southwark Crown Court heard.
But sentencing Barkat to seven years and three months’ imprisonment on Friday, the judge said that the police investigating the matter had shown a “catalogue of incompetencies”.
He told the court that after the complainant was interviewed, Barkat was released either on bail or under investigation.
The judge said: “He was simply let go in a situation in which frankly he had been caught red-handed and presented a continuing danger to the public.”
He added: “The bottom line is this man was set free for period of a year, a year to do what he likes, in a situation where he had attacked a lone female in a park.
“The public would be appalled to hear of such laxity.”…
Well, sure, Judge, but to do otherwise would have been “Islamophobic,” and what could be worse than that?
UK opposition demands Pakistan aid freeze over child sex predator
UK opposition parties have called for aid and visas for Pakistan to be suspended after Islamabad refused to accept the deportation of a grooming gang ringleader convicted of multiple child sex offenses.
Pakistani-born Shabir Ahmed was a leading figure in the Rochdale gang, which sexually exploited British girls in the Greater Manchester borough during the 2000s. He was released earlier this month after serving 14 years of a 22-year sentence for 30 counts of child rape.
Although Ahmed was stripped of his British citizenship in 2016, the UK government was unable to deport him because the Immigration Act 1971 protects certain Commonwealth citizens who arrived in Britain before 1973 and had lived there for at least five years.
UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has pledged to amend the law in cases of “exceptional severity.” However, Islamabad has refused to accept Ahmed, claiming he renounced his Pakistani citizenship decades ago after destroying his Pakistani passport more than 30 years ago – an act British officials argue did not formally terminate his citizenship.
Despite the Labour government insisting it was doing “everything possible” to deport Ahmed, on Thursday it came to light that the Foreign Office had approved £153 million ($206 million) in development assistance for Pakistan over the next three years. The disclosure triggered a war of words between the ruling party and the opposition.
“Pakistan. No foreign aid. No visas. Until you take back rapist Ahmed,” Reform UK’s deputy leader wrote on X on Friday.
The party’s home affairs spokesman, Zia Yusuf, called the funding proof that Britain’s political establishment “do not care about the British people,” pledging that Reform would immediately suspend aid and visas for Pakistani nationals.
UK Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp echoed the demand, saying that “vile pedophile child rapists who came here from Pakistan should all be deported back.”
“We should stop all overseas aid and issuance of new visas for Pakistani citizens until they take Ahmed and those like him back,” he added.
Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel likewise condemned the decision, arguing that Labour’s approval of the aid package “tells you all you need to know.”
The British government argued that the aid would help build a safer and more resilient Pakistan, reducing “security and migration risks to the UK.”
Islamabad has maintained that responsibility for Ahmed lies with Britain, where he “grew up, was raised, groomed and, unfortunately, spoiled.”
The Rochdale convictions were among several cases that exposed widespread failures by police and local authorities to protect vulnerable girls and act on repeated reports of organized sexual abuse. A recent report commissioned by Restore Britain MP Rupert Lowe argued that authorities often failed to intervene for fear of being accused of racism.
Islamabad blames Pakistani-born child rapist’s crimes on UK upbringing
Pakistani-born Shabir Ahmed, a rape gang ringleader recently released in the UK after serving a prison term for dozens of child sex offenses, committed his crimes because of his upbringing in England, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi said on Thursday.
The 73-year-old, who first entered the UK as a teenager, was a leading figure in the Rochdale grooming gang, which sexually abused and trafficked British girls as young as 12 in the Greater Manchester borough during the 2000s.
Ahmed was released from prison under supervision in early June after serving 14 years. The British authorities have been unable to deport him because of a provision protecting certain Commonwealth citizens who were resident in the UK before 1973, despite his British citizenship having been revoked following his 2012 convictions.
“The matter in question is entirely an internal matter of the United Kingdom,” Andrabi said at a press briefing.
Regardless of where [Ahmed] was born, the onus lies on where he grew up, was raised, groomed, and, unfortunately, was spoiled... His heinous crimes demand serious introspection rather than a quest to search for extraneous causes.
The spokesman stressed that Islamabad strongly condemns child sexual abuse, which should be “punished to the fullest extent of the law, irrespective of race, ethnicity, or religion,” but insisted that Pakistan “has no connection whatsoever with this matter” and “cannot be associated” with any related decisions.
On Monday, UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced plans to amend the Immigration Act to remove the legal barrier preventing Ahmed’s deportation.
The Rochdale rape gang was one of many grooming gangs, predominantly composed of men of Pakistani origin, that systematically raped and sexually trafficked vulnerable young British girls across the UK over decades.
The grooming gangs scandal returned to the spotlight of British politics last year, forcing the Labour government to announce a nationwide inquiry, which unearthed “blindness, ignorance, prejudice, defensiveness” and systematic failures by police and public bodies to protect victims and act on reports of abuse.
