Victim ‘waiting anxiously’ and probation notes reveal he has not addressed offending
A Rotherham grooming gangs victim has shared her horror at the prospect of her rapist being released next year despite probation officials warning that he has not addressed his offending.
Elizabeth Harper, not her real name, was abused by taxi driver Ashgar Bostan in the 2000s.
He was jailed for nine years in 2018 after a National Crime Agency investigation found he had raped the young teenage girl in a flat in the South Yorkshire town.
At the time of his sentencing, Elizabeth said that her childhood had been “destroyed” by the abuser.
“I often wonder what my life would have been like if I had finished my education, gone on to college and become the teacher I had always dreamed of being.”
But Bostan is now set to be released at the expiration of his sentence with no licence conditions, despite him maintaining his innocence and displaying signs of still being a risk.
When he was first jailed, Bostan spent two years in a closed prison before being moved to an open facility, which Elizabeth was not told about.
He was released in August 2022 but recalled in January 2024 after he breached his licence conditions.
Since then, two parole decisions have kept him in prison until the end of his sentence in February 2027.
Parole Board notes of his two recent assessments, seen exclusively by GB News, said that Mr Bostan “had limited understanding of the potential risk he poses to the public and children in the community.”
“He had not completed any accredited programmes to address his sexual offending.”
Notes also reveal that Bostan has “maintained his innocence,” which officials note is “not a barrier to being rereleased.”
Elizabeth told GB News: “I am waiting anxiously for the release of a man who abused me as a child and has clearly made no effort to admit what he did and start to change his ways.
“As these notes show, he has done nothing to change his behaviour and therefore still clearly poses a risk to children.
“The prison and probation service have offered programmes to sick abusers like Bostan, but there is no punishment after he is released from prison even if he has rejected all of these course.
“His licence conditions will expire when he is released, despite his clear lack of remorse and definite sustained interest in the abuse that saw him sent to prison.”
Elizabeth was astonished by the news that Rochdale ringleader Shabbir Ahmed was set for release and had escaped deportation, but he still has licence conditions preventing him from returning to the areas where he conducted his abuse.
Bostan has no such limits when his sentence expires in February 2027, which means that Elizabeth is relying on a restraining order.
“If the justice system clearly thinks that he has not changed his ways, how do they think I will be safe when he is released? There needs to be proof of a change of mindset and a willingness to accept what he did before he can be allowed out of prison without any licence conditions.”
Solicitor David Greenwood, who runs the abuse team at law firm Switalskis, told GB News: “This case illustrates the inadequacy of our criminal justice system to prevent reoffending by sex criminals. We know these offenders tend to have incurable urges to take advantage of children for their sexual gratification. This makes them highly dangerous.
“The government should create a new class of licence condition to enable the recall of these dangerous criminals to prison should they breach them at the end of their sentence.”
Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy told GB News: "Prison works because it punishes, deters and most importantly incapacitates. It keeps dangerous criminals away from innocent people.
"Child rapists who show no remorse and are still a threat to the public have no business being released. We should not be allowing unreformed paedophiles and sex offenders back into the community.
"The Conservatives would abolish the Sentencing Council, restore sentencing guidelines to elected ministers and ensure longer sentences for dangerous offenders."
A Government spokesperson said: “The grooming gangs scandal was one of Britain’s darkest moments. That’s why we launched an Independent Inquiry, toughened sentencing so these vile predators face longer sentences and have driven child sex offence convictions to record levels.
“Having spent his whole sentence behind bars, this offender will be on the sex offender’s register for life meaning he will be monitored under the watchful eye of the state and be in contact with police officers on a regular basis.”
