The impending release of the Rochdale grooming gang leader is “really scary” for local women and girls because of failings in a “weak” probation service and his lack of remorse, a former health worker who exposed the paedophile ring has said.Sara Rowbotham, whose team gathered evidence that led to the imprisonment of Shabir Ahmed and eight other men in Rochdale, said she is “terrified” by the prospect of meeting him in the street.“He has been on my mind ever since I heard that he was not going to be deported as promised. I am genuinely concerned that I will see him walk out of a local bail hostel near my house. If I feel like that, think how the women he abused must feel,” she said.The Labour MP Andy Burnham said on Wednesday his government would explore “all possible options”, if he becomes prime minister, to close a legal loophole that prevented the deportation of Ahmed, who is due for release this week.Ahmed’s victims were told in 2012 he would be deported after being jailed for 30 child rape charges involving girls as young as 13. However, this week the government admitted that the provisions of the Immigration Act 1971 meant he could not be deported to Pakistan, where he was born, even though he has been stripped of British citizenship.Rowbotham, who was played by Maxine Peake in the award-winning BBC drama Three Girls, said she had little faith that he would be properly monitored after his release.Shabir Ahmed was sentenced to 19 years in prison in 2012 and is due to be released on licence. Photograph: Greater Manchester police/PA“This man organised some very nasty abuse of young girls. He was able to coerce, manipulate and organise a highly manipulative group of men, and when in court he was volatile in court and towards the judge. There have been no indications that his views have changed.“The de-investment in probation services means that any monitoring of him and his behaviour is likely to be really weak. Who is going to make sure he and maybe others do not seek revenge?” she said.Ahmed, 73, known to his victims as “Daddy”, had dual British-Pakistani citizenship but was stripped of the former after his conviction in 2012 for multiple counts of rape and sexual offences against girls.Rowbotham, while working for the NHS, made hundreds of referrals detailing the abuse and sexual grooming by Ahmed and his associates between 2005 and 2011. She said she still remembered being called in by Greater Manchester police and being shown a photo of Ahmed, the ring’s organiser, for the first time.She remains torn over whether he should be deported to Pakistan, because she believes he could be a danger to women and girls there too.“The promise made to the survivors should be upheld and so he should be deported. But the other side of the dilemma is that women and children in Pakistan should also be protected. I am uncomfortable with just sending people to their country of origin. We have some responsibility to keep people safe wherever they are,” she said.The Home Office has previously said Ahmed’s crimes were “appalling” and that he would be subject to stringent licence conditions upon his release from prison. Ahmed must initially live in supervised accommodation with 24-hour staffing and will be subject to an “exclusion zone” centred on Rochdale.However, some victims and witnesses and local MPs were not informed about his impending release, which they found about on social media.David Lammy, the justice secretary, has been lobbied by MPs asking for him to extend the exclusion zone to include other local towns including Heywood, the location of Ahmed’s takeaway where he and dozens of others abused young girls.Conservative home secretaries including Priti Patel told victims that Ahmed would be deported. Documents published online this week said Ahmed could not be deported back to Pakistan because of provisions under the Immigration Act 1971. The documents said that because Ahmed arrived in the UK before 1973 and lived in the country for at least five years before his deportation was considered, his removal was barred.Speaking to LBC on Thursday morning, the Labour minister Jacqui Smith suggested Pakistan had refused to take Ahmed, saying there was “work that needs to happen” to persuade the country to accept him if he is deported. She said: “We’re doing everything we can, looking at every route to get this guy out of the country.”Ahmed was sentenced to 19 years in prison at Liverpool crown court in 2012 as one of nine men convicted of offences against five girls.He is reportedly being held at HMP Leeds and it is understood he will be released on licence with terms that he must initially live at the staffed accommodation so will not return to his last known address on Windsor Avenue in Oldham.