Qurban Ali, the 59-year-old member of the infamous Rotherham grooming gang, has been pictured for the first time since being released from prison for his crimes as he enjoyed his freedom in the Northern English sunshine.
One of the victims of the paedophile ring which Ali was part of has expressed her outrage seeing the criminal on the streets of Sheffield in South Yorkshire.
The former taxi firm boss was seen strolling around only five miles away from his old haunts in nearby Rotherham.
MailOnline revealed exclusively last month how Ali had become the first major grooming gang member, comprised of mostly British-Pakistanis, to be freed early last year after serving only half of his ten year jail sentence.
Rotherham grooming gang survivor Sammy Woodhouse, 37, said members of the grooming gang should not be allowed in South Yorkshire - as it is too close to their victims
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, she bravely waived her right to anonymity, saying: ‘It's a disgrace that he has only served half his sentence and is now back out on the streets.
‘None of those convicted as part of the grooming gang scandal should be allowed in South Yorkshire. It's far too close. Some of us live and work in Rotherham and Sheffield.
‘But people like him and the people he associates with don’t care whatsoever about people like me, they never have and never will.’
Ali was jailed in February 2016, alongside three of his nephews, after being convicted of conspiracy to rape at Sheffield Crown Court, but was cleared of three other charges including rape.
His nephew Arshid who was the group’s ringleader known as ‘Mad Ash’ was jailed for 35 years for 23 serious child sexual exploitation crimes between 1987 and 2003 including three rapes and 11 indecent assaults.
Arshid’s brothers Basharat and Bannaras were also was jailed for 25 years and 19 years respectively for similar crimes.
A dozen women who are now aged in their 30s gave harrowing evidence at their trial to describe how they were repeatedly abused by the gang.
Judge Sarah Wright told Ali and his nephews: ‘The harm you have caused is of unimaginable proportions.’
An official report released in 2014 found that 1,400 women and girls in Rotherham were subjected to sexual exploitation as children by multiple gangs between 1997 and 2013 in the UK’s biggest sex abuse scandal.
The report commissioned by Rotherham Borough Council found that children as young as 11 were raped by multiple perpetrators, abducted, trafficked to other cities in England, beaten and intimidated.
The council’s leader Roger Stone who had held his post since 2003 stepped down with immediate effect after publication of the report, saying: ‘I believe it is only right that as leader I take responsibility for the historic failings described so clearly.’
Shaun Wright also quit as South Yorkshire's police and crime commissioner after weeks of pressure over the report’s findings.
Mr Wright, who was elected as PCC in 2012, had been in charge of children's services in Rotherham between 2005 and 2010.
The inquiry team noted fears among council staff that they would be labelled ‘racist’ if they focused on victims' descriptions of the majority of abusers as being Asian men.
Report author Professor Alexis Jay said there had been ‘blatant’ collective failures by the council's leadership, while senior managers had ‘underplayed’ the scale of abuse.
Jay also criticised South Yorkshire Police for failing to prioritise the issue.
The inquiry team found examples of ‘children who had been doused in petrol and threatened with being set alight, threatened with guns, made to witness brutally violent rapes and threatened they would be next if they told anyone’.
MailOnline saw Ali wearing sunglasses, a white skull cap and a traditional shalwar kameez loose fitting white top over grey jogging pants as he emerged from commercial premises.
The bearded sex offender was also seen walking down the road in his skull cap and a matching while shalwar kameez top and trousers.
Ali refused to comment when he was questioned by a MailOnline reporter.
He said simply: ‘I'm not going to say anything’ before a younger man who was with him, began shouting ‘So what?’
Under the current legal system, a prisoner serving a sentence for a fixed length of time, is released automatically under the supervision of the probation service after serving half their term.
It is not known if Ali has any licence conditions which prohibit him from crossing over into Rotherham.
Ali’s trial heard how he was nicknamed ‘Blind Ash’ and drove his nephew Arshid to the home of a woman called Karen McGregor where girls recruited by her would be abused.
He was also said to have given heroin to McGregor who was jailed for 13 years for luring girls to her home and pimping them out.
MailOnline revealed last month that a second grooming gang member Tayab Dad, 40, was also freed earlier this year serving half of a ten year sentence imposed in February 2017.
A report into the grooming gang scandal by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) found last month that officers in South Yorkshire had ‘failed to protect vulnerable children’.
A total of 47 current and former officers were investigated by the IOPC - but none were fired, despite 265 separate allegations being made by more than 50 complainants.
The IOPC's investigation - which took eight years to publish and cost £6m - catalogued how children as young as 12 were seen as ‘consenting’ to their abuse by officers, who were told to prioritise other crimes.
It also detailed how one parent concerned about a missing daughter said they were told by an officer ‘it was a 'fashion accessory’ for girls in Rotherham to have an ‘older Asian boyfriend’ and that she would grow out of it'.
Child sexual exploitation on predominantly young white girls by mainly Asian men is widely believed to have happened on such a scale in Rotherham because of a reluctance to investigate by police and council officials worried they would be labelled as racists.
Taxi drivers were able to pick children up from care homes and schools and take them to places where they would be raped, abused and forced to watch others be sexually assaulted.
There were reported cases of girls being doused in petrol and threatened with being set on fire while others were warned that the gang members would go after their mothers and younger sisters.
The independent report into the scandal in 2014 revealed that more than 100 girls ended up pregnant and giving birth to babies as a result of being groomed or abused.
Scores more girls as young as 13 miscarried or were forced to have abortions. One victim was said to have been aged only 12 when she fell pregnant after being raped.
Around 200 people in Rotherham have so far been arrested by police investigating multiple claims of abuse involving 1,000 victims.
But only 20 men, predominantly of British Pakistani descent, have so far been convicted and jailed for a total of around 250 years.
Police are still said to be conducting 30 separate investigations and it is likely that more men will charged later this year.
Around 200 officers are still involved in investigations into the scandal under Operation Stovewood which is being led by the National Crime Agency.
Police are continuing to appeal for victims of grooming and abuse between 1997 and 2013 or anyone with information to come forward.
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