Lord Ahmed charged with attempted rape of girl

A member of the House of Lords has been charged with two counts of attempting to rape a girl. Former Labour peer Lord Nazir Ahmed of Rotherham, 61, is also charged with indecent assault of a boy under 13. Prosecutors allege the offences took place between 1971 and 1974, when Lord Ahmed would have been aged between 14 and 17. Two other men, Mohammed Farouq, 68, and Mohammed Tariq, 63, both from Rotherham, have also been charged.
All three men are due to appear at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court on 19 March. Mr Farouq of Worrygoose Lane, Rotherham, is charged with four counts of indecently assaulting a boy under 13 between 1968 and 1972. Mr Tariq of Gerard Road, Rotherham is charged with two counts of indecently assaulting a boy under 13 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.