Tory press office did not take ‘very seriously’ allegation MP abused boy, 15, court hears
Conservative Party press office did not take ‘very seriously’ the allegation that would-be MP Imran Ahmad Khan had sexually abused 15-year-old boy, complainant tells trial
Imran Khan MP is accused of sexually assaulting a boy, 15, in January 2008 The Wakefield MP, 48, is alleged to have attacked the boy in Staffordshire The alleged victim claims Khan tried to ply him with alcohol before the assault
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The Conservative Party press office did not take ‘very seriously’ allegations that a 15-year-old boy was sexually assaulted by a man who later stood as an election candidate, a court has heard.
Imran Ahmad Khan, 48, allegedly forced the youngster to drink gin and tonic, dragged him upstairs and asked him to watch pornography before groping him in a bunk bed following a party in January 2008.
The then-teenager did not want to make a formal complaint at the time but told Southwark Crown Court ‘it all came flooding back’ when he discovered Khan was standing to become the MP for Wakefield in West Yorkshire in the December 2019 general election.
Tory MP Imran Khan, pictured outside Southwark Crown Court today, denies sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy following a family party at the youngster’s house in Staffordshire in January 2008
The Wakefield MP, pictured, was elected to parliament in 2019. The complainant told the court Khan tried to give him alcohol, wanted to watch pornography with him
He went to police days after Khan helped Prime Minister Boris Johnson win a large Commons majority by taking the constituency in the so-called ‘red wall’ that had formed Labour’s heartlands in the Midlands and northern England.
But the alleged victim, who voted Labour, told a jury on Thursday that his complaint was ‘not motivated by political reasons’.
‘If it was, I would’ve done it before the general election,’ he said.
‘I also contacted the Tory press office, trying to inform them what had happened.
‘I wasn’t taken very seriously.’
He continued: ‘I explained that Imran Khan was running for MP and had just sort of been hurriedly put through.
‘I explained this and said ‘He sexually assaulted me when I was a child, when I was 15′.’
He said the woman he spoke to sounded ‘shocked’ and passed him on to someone else who sounded more ‘stern’ and asked if he had any ‘proof’.
‘I said “Yes, there’s a police report” and she said “Well…”, and that was it.
‘I said “I’m going to the police”, and she said “Well, you do that”.’
Khan, who was 34 at the time, denies a single count of sexual assault over the alleged incident involving the schoolboy at a house in Staffordshire.
The MP, who is gay and a Muslim, claims he only touched the Catholic teenager’s elbow when he “became extremely upset” after a conversation about his confused sexuality.
Khan’s barrister, Gudrun Young QC, suggested in cross-examination that the complainant has given three ‘contradictory’ accounts – a police report in 2008, and police interviews in 2019 and 2021.
She suggested the man, who has trained as an actor, is ‘literally making this up’ and reliving a ‘drama you are convinced of in your own mind’.
But the alleged victim insisted he is telling the truth, telling the court: ‘I am not a liar.’
The trial continues.
Khan denies sexually assaulting the then 15-year-old boy in January 2008. His trial at Southwark Crown Court, file photograph, continues
