December trial date set for Lord Ahmed over historic child sex offences

Lord Ahmed will go on trial later this year charged with historic sexual offences against children.

The Rotherham-based peer appeared for a brief hearing before a judge at Sheffield Crown Court on Wednesday.

He is charged with a serious sexual assault against a boy under the age of 11, relating to a date between 1971 and 1972.

He is also charged with the indecent assault of the same boy, also between 1971 and 1972.

Ahmed, 61, is also charged with two counts of attempting to rape a girl who was under the age of 16.

These charges relate to dates between 1973 and 1974.

The peer appeared under his name Nazir Ahmed along with two of his brothers.

Mohammed Farouq, 68, of Worrygoose Lane, Rotherham, is charged with four counts of indecent assault against a boy.

One of these counts relates to when the boy was under eight, in the late 1960s.

Mohammed Tariq, 63, of Gerard Road, Rotherham, is charged with two counts of indecent assault against a boy under 11.

Ahmed (pictured), of East Bawtry Road, Rotherham, stood in the dock with his brothers, wearing a dark suit and purple tie.

He spoke to confirm his name, date of birth and his nationality as British.

During a 20 minute long hearing, Judge Jeremy Richardson QC fixed the trial date for all three men for December 2.

He said a further hearing will be held on June 14 and released all three on bail.

Ahmed was born in Pakistan-governed Kashmir but his political roots are in Rotherham, where he grew up and still lives.

Educated locally, he joined the Labour Party at 18 and served for a decade on Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council.

After studying at Sheffield Hallam University, he ran a chain of shops in his home town and became a property developer.

He was made a life peer in 1998 and made regular appearances in the media, where he was often called on to comment on issues facing British Muslims.

Ahmed resigned from the Labour Party in 2013.

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