Lord Ahmed of Rotherham in court on child sex abuse charges Published duration 19 March 2019

image copyright UK Parliament image caption Lord Ahmed of Rotherham is a former Labour peer

A member of the House of Lords has appeared in court charged with historical child sex offences.

Lord Ahmed of Rotherham, 61, is charged with two counts of attempting to rape a girl under 16 and one count of indecently assaulting a boy under 14.

He appeared at Sheffield Magistrates' Court alongside two of his brothers, Mohamed Farouq, 68, and Mohammed Tariq, 63, who denied similar charges.

All three were granted bail to appear at Sheffield Crown Court on 16 April.

The charges against the former Labour peer relate to two complainants - a boy and a girl - and are said to have taken place between 1971 and 1974, when he was aged between 14 and 17.

Lord Ahmed, of East Bawtry Road, Rotherham, did not enter any pleas during the brief hearing but his solicitor, Haroon Shah, said he would be pleading not guilty to all the charges.

Mr Farouq, of Worrygoose Lane, Rotherham, pleaded not guilty to four counts of indecently assaulting a boy under 14 between 1968 and 1972.

Mr Tariq, of Gerard Road, Rotherham, denied two counts of indecently assaulting a boy under 14 between 1970 and 1972.

Nazir Ahmed was born in Pakistan and moved to the UK in 1969 with his family to join his father who was working in steel factories in Rotherham.

He joined the Labour Party in 1975 aged 18 and became a councillor in Rotherham in 1990.

In 1998 he became one of the first Muslim peers when he was appointed to the House of Lords by then-Prime Minister Tony Blair.

He resigned from the Labour Party in 2013

Related Topics Rotherham