The Council Lawyer Who Tried To Silence the Grooming Gang Scandal

When Oldham Council Instructed Lawyers To Try To Stop Me Calling Shabir Ahmed A Paedophile.

On 30 August 2023, a letter from Browne Jacobson LLP arrived at my home. Oldham Council had instructed the firm to threaten me with an injunction under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. The harassment alleged was my campaigning. The letter counted my work for the court. Two hundred and forty two videos, a seven part blog, years of reporting on what was done to this borough's children. All of it the council found caused harassment.

Oldham Council demanded I stop saying that its people were involved in covering up the grooming and gang rape of children and identifying Pakistani men as the main culprits..

The letter called the allegation baseless and gave me until 4pm on 13 September to submit, warning that if an injunction were granted and breached I could face criminal prosecution. It even refused mediation in advance, on the grounds that my behaviour made talking pointless. A public body spent public money asking a court to make my campaigning a crime.

The man who confirmed instructing that firm, in his own email of 14 September 2023, was Alexander Bougatef. He copied his confirmation to every councillor in Oldham so the audience could watch. No one should be surprised how he has been rapidly promoted since.

I wrote back, addressed to Mr Bougatef personally. I called the exercise what it was, a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, paid for with Oldham Council Tax payers' money, in violation of Article 10. I asked him to confirm in writing whether he had acted on his own volition or with sign off from the Borough Solicitor or the Chief Executive, and I gave him a deadline of my own, 5pm on 19 September, after which I would report him to the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Then I read his firm's evidence back to him. Among the conduct requiring an injunction, describing an unspecified individual as a samosa nibbler, and referencing as paedophiles Rod Blyth and Shabir Ahmed. Both convicted child sex offenders. Both men whose convictions or connections to Oldham Council stayed hidden until I exposed them.

The Council of a rape gang cover-up town instructed lawyers to stop me calling the ringleader of the Rochdale grooming gang a paedophile.

I told Bougatef I did not fear him, and that at the ballot box there would be a reckoning. Three years later, a national statutory inquiry is weeks from arriving in Oldham to examine the institution whose conduct I was ordered to stop describing. The description survived. The injunction failed.

Bougatef is now the man who is threatening Reform councillors because they refuse to vote in a Labour leader or a Pakistani sectarian group to take control of the town. The official bullying elected councillors on what he believes are their legal duties is the same official who tried to obtain a court order against me.

Which is why, when the National Inquiry comes to Oldham, both Alexander Bougatef and his legal team from Browne Jacobson LLP must be called to testify and explain their actions.

For 8 years I've exposed how politicians and police covered up the gang rape of working-class White girls by Pakistani grooming gangs. I, with the support of the people of Oldham, led the campaign that forced the National Inquiry. Now, with your help, we will force this inquiry to a place it does not want to go.

As Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham fronted a series of Assurance Reviews of which one was in my hometown of Oldham. It was a cover-up of a cover-up. It tried to bury the truth. Don't believe me? Ask Maggie Oliver. Even she has come to the same conclusion.

Despite Burnham's efforts to help hide what took place, we forced a national inquiry. Whilst previously defending the robustness of his now exposed cover up, Burnham is now trying his best to rewrite the truth of what he really did.

Unfortunately, as of yet, the national inquiry will not investigate Burnham or his actions and his deceit will go unchallenged. We hope to change this before the investigation starts in Oldham.

Once Burnham is in Downing Street, the pressure to protect him will be immense. The institutions that failed these girls will try everything possible not to hold a PM accountable. Much of the press will look away, as always. This is why it is up to us to carry the truth.

Which is why I'm turning this community of readers into something more than what I can manage on my own. We need to grow.

Before Burnham reaches Number 10, Red Wall and the Rabble needs 2,000 more paid subscribers to help grow and become more than a one man operation. With your help, we can do in towns and cities across the country what we have done in Oldham.

Should we succeed, politicians will go to prison. It is as simple as that. Surely, on this prospect alone, it is worth your support.

Raja Miah MBE