Image source, Danny Lawson/PA Wire
Image caption,Lord Ahmed, pictured arriving at court in late November, resigned from the House of Lords in November 2020
A former Labour peer convicted of sexually abusing two children has been jailed for five years and six months.
Lord Ahmed of Rotherham, 64, was found guilty in January of a serious sexual assault against a boy and the attempted rape of a young girl in the 1970s.
The repeated sexual abuse happened in Rotherham when he was a teenager, Sheffield Crown Court heard.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Lavender said his actions had had "profound and lifelong effects" on the victims.
The court heard Lord Ahmed, who was tried under his real name Nazir Ahmed, attempted to rape the girl in the early 1970s, when he was aged 16 or 17 but she was much younger.
The attack on the boy, who was aged under 11 at the time, also happened during the same period.
Ahmed had denied the charges, calling them a "malicious fiction", but a phone recording of a conversation between the two victims in 2016 showed they were not "made-up".
The judge said the offences were "so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified".
He added: "You were a child yourself when you committed these crimes. It makes sentencing extremely difficult.
"The fact that it happened so long ago only adds to the difficulty."
Lord Ahmed, who was convicted following a retrial, resigned from the House of Lords in November 2020 after a conduct committee report concluded he had sexually and emotionally exploited a vulnerable woman who sought his help.
The inquiry into his behaviour followed a BBC Newsnight investigation.
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