Charlie Elphicke accuser weeps as she tells court the ex-Conservative MP ‘groped her breast’

A former Conservative MP accused of sexually assaulting a woman while singing ‘I’m a naughty Tory’ texted her days later to say that he had ‘enjoyed the other night’ and wanted to meet again, a court has heard.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, broke down as she claimed Charlie Elphicke had chased her around his home after he had groped her while his children slept upstairs.

She told Southwark crown court that a day later, he texted her to say ‘something like, “I enjoyed the other night, we should do it again”. I was like “my God, no”. I was like 100 per cent no.’ 

The woman said it felt like Elphicke was ‘racing’ her around his home in central London, in 2007, trying to grab her bottom.

The alleged victim had rejected Elphicke’s advances moments earlier as they shared a £40 bottle of wine, with the politician’s children asleep upstairs and his wife, Natalie Elphicke, away on business, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Giving evidence via video-link, the woman said she thought of Elphicke – who did not become an MP until three years later – as ‘asexual’, so found it ‘odd’ when he began asking her about her sexual preferences.

She said: ‘He started talking about what we (the alleged victim and her boyfriend) liked in a sexual way.

‘I sort of wagged my finger at him and said ‘We don’t need to talk about that kind of thing’.

‘He was like a totally asexual person, to me.

‘He started saying ‘Do you like silk and leather?’ and bondage.

‘He was jovial, jokey, excited maybe, in an animated way.

‘I was just thinking ‘Oh god, how embarrassing’.’

She said the conversation continued for ‘a couple of sentences’ before he ‘basically jumped’ on her, the court heard.

She said: ‘He tried to kiss me and I moved my head, he pushed me down by my shoulders, he had his knee between my legs and he was groping my breast.’

The witness said she told Elphicke to ‘get off’ and she ran away.

‘I just thought ‘I’ve got to get out of here’,’ she told the jury. My adrenaline was going. I was just shocked – really, really shocked.

‘I never thought in a million years that he was that kind of person, that he would do anything like that.’

She said Elphicke then ‘pursued’ her around his home as she moved away.

She said: ‘He was saying really bizarre things that are embarrassing like ‘I’m a naughty Tory’.

‘He was trying to grope me and trying to grab my bum. He was following me, it was like a race,’ she said.

‘I couldn’t understand what was happening.’

The witness told jurors she managed to get away from Elphicke and got into a taxi.

She said: ‘I was scared. I was feeling really shocked and scared … the whole thing was really embarrassing and odd and scary.’

Elphicke denies three counts of sexual assault against two women, between 2007 and 2016.

Jurors have been told of a second woman who said she found herself in Elphicke’s company, sharing a bottle of champagne in Westminster, when he allegedly assaulted her.

The young woman, a parliamentary worker, said he tried to kiss her before groping her.

‘He had his mouth open, continually trying to kiss me,’ she said.

‘It was like a disgusting slobbery mess.’

The prosecutor said the woman ‘clearly rejected’ Elphicke, told him he was married, and that there was a large age gap.

Prosecutor Eloise Marshall told jurors he also said to the woman: ‘Oh, I’m naughty sometimes, aren’t I? I can be so badly behaved, but I can’t help it.’

Elphicke was elected as MP for Dover in 2010 and held the seat until standing down at the general election in December 2019. His wife, Natalie, succeeded him.

The trial continues.