Whilst all political parties have the occasional wrong ‘uns who commit crimes or behave in an unethical manner, the Labour Party seems to be far and away the party with some of the most egregious offenders or alleged offenders. We should not forget the former MP for Peterborough who, despite being a solicitor, decided to lie in order to try to get away with a motoring offence and was gaoled as a consequence. Then there are the cases that are currently in progress against Labour representatives and activists, which I cannot speak too much about as these matters are sub judice, but which relate to fraud, harassment and housing fraud. The Labour Party, whatever it may say about itself, is plainly not a paragon of virtue and honesty.

However it is to a completed case and one from Newcastle upon Tyne that we need to look at today. It is a case that will arouse a lot of interest, especially among those who are living in the area or are aware of one of the backstory aspects of this case.

According to a report by a gentleman called Jay Beecher on a website called Vote Watch, which specifically covers story about Labour misdemeanours and alleged misdemeanours, a case has recently concluded at Newcastle Crown Court involving a Labour councillor Mr Dipu Ahad. The article states that Mr Ahad pleaded guilty to a charge that he stalked a woman leaving her ‘in distress’.

Vote Watch said:

Pleading guilty to the charge, Newcastle Crown Court heard that Ahad committed a series of creepy acts between December 31st, 2018 and May 30th, 2019, which amounted to stalking.

The court heard the acts he confessed to include setting up fake email and social media accounts in the victim’s name, “sending an email to himself purporting to be third party and revealing this to (her)”, phoning her home purporting to be from a Government agency, sending her a message claiming he had received malicious calls, sending her a voicemail purportedly left by a third party, using chalk paint to graffiti her car, sending her an email containing photographs, sending a message “which contained a screenshot of an email purportedly sent by a third party to Ahad”, and sending an email containing threats to himself.

This in my opinion, is by no means a minor level of offence, no small degree of unwanted attention paid to the lady who was the victim of this stalking, this was a sustained and significantly pre-meditated series of actions. The Vote Watch report stated that the judge has remanded Mr Ahad on bail pending sentencing and that a custodial sentence is not being ruled out.

When I saw this story and saw the name Dipu Ahad, I thought ‘now this name rings a bell’ and I wondered where I had heard it before. I then did some digging and found out that I had encountered this character before in the context of the aftermath of a major Grooming Gang case that was uncovered by police in Tyneside and which involved a large number of Muslim men.

When this case came to court and the defendants were convicted of various sex and other offences

back in 2017, Mr Ahad was highly vocal on the subject. He said that the local Muslim community had ‘nothing to apologise for’ as although the offenders were Muslim, this was ‘not a Muslim issue’. Whilst I concur with him that not every Muslim man is a rapist or a sex offender, such a claim would be completely baseless, Mr Ahad, who unfortunately had several of the offenders living in his ward, did try to divert attention from any cultural or religious problems by claiming that the ‘far right’ and ‘racists’ were exploiting the matter. Mr Ahad also claimed that the local Muslim community was living in fear of a ‘backlash’ from ‘racists’ over the case. As far as I can ascertain from looking around, such a ‘backlash’ has not happened or at least not happened to any appreciable or noticeable extent.

What is interesting in particular about Mr Ahad’s comments at the time of the 2017 case is that, according to the Independent newspaper, he said this:

“We need to challenge deep-rooted issues in the community, where some men looking at women – not just white women – in a way that’s not acceptable,” Mr Ahad added, accusing racists of trying to “exploit exploitation”.

All well and good. There are deep rooted issues in some Islamic communities in the UK regarding how women both inside and outside these communities are treated, it’s difficult to disagree with that. However, such a statement looks very hollow when set alongside Mr Ahad’s conduct regarding the woman that he consistently and nastily stalked. I smell a great deal of hypocrisy here.

This stalking case is going to be one to watch when Mr Ahad comes up for sentencing in April. Will he walk or will he be caged? That will be up to the Judge in this case to decide but there are aspects of this case including the graffiti on the car and pretending to be from a Government agency that may well cross the custody threshold.