Mubarek Ali: Keep Telford sex offender in jail, says petition
The number of people calling for a review of the early release of Mubarek Ali has more than doubled in three days.
About 19,000 people have now signed the petition on change.org after it was revealed a sex offender is set to be released from prison after serving just five years of his 22-year sentence.
The number has risen from about 7,000 at the weekend. Set up by Ashley Ray, the petition will be given to Justice Secretary David Lidington.
Today, West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion said victims of child sexual exploitation must be able to put their trust in the justice system.
He said: “We cannot ask victims to have the courage to speak out and seek help if they just end up feeling the criminal justice system has let them down.
“I am working hard to improve the parts of that system that I can – such as local policing and victim services. However, there is a bigger challenge around how the wider system works beyond our control.
“Collectively and individually we cannot fail those victims who put their trust in our criminal justice system, often in the most traumatic of circumstances.”
There has been a mass outcry after it was revealed on Saturday that Ali, also known as Max, one of the ringleaders of a Telford grooming gang, who was jailed following a police investigation dubbed Operation Chalice, is due to be released in November.
The investigation revealed details of a network of men from who targeted young and vulnerable teenage girls. More than 1,400 people have also voted in a Shropshire Star poll as to whether the early release should be reviewed, and 77 per cent said they agreed it should be looked at again.
After West Mercia Police’s investigation into suspected under-age sex and child prostitution, seven men were finally convicted at Worcester Crown Court in 2013.
The cases stretching over two years, including that of 34-year-old Ali of Regent Street, Wellington, who was given 22 years, 14 years immediate custody and eight years on licence, for seven offences – four of controlling child prostitution, causing child prostitution and two offences of trafficking in the UK for the purpose of prostitution, involving two of the victims. He was also made the subject of a lifelong sexual offences prevention order.
