Tory MP Imran Ahmad Khan has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy at a house in Staffordshire in 2008.
Khan, 48, the MP for Wakefield in West Yorkshire, forced the boy to drink gin, dragged him upstairs, pushed him onto a bed and asked him to watch pornography before the attack, Southwark Crown Court heard.
The victim, now 29-years-old, was left feeling “scared, vulnerable, numb, shocked and surprised” after Khan touched his feet and legs, he told the jury – coming within “a hair’s breadth” of his genitals while he sat in a top bunkbed.
Khan, who in December 2019 was elected as the MP for Wakefield, has vehemently denied sexually assaulting the boy, claiming he only touched the Catholic teenager’s elbow when he “became extremely upset” after a conversation about his sexuality.
But the MP, who is gay and a Muslim, was found guilty by a jury on Monday after around five hours of deliberations.
The judge, Mr Justice Baker, said he will sentence Khan, who has been suspended by the Conservative Party, on a later date.
The victim claims he was not “taken very seriously” when he first made the allegation to the party’s press office days before Khan’s election success.
He then made a complaint to police a short while after Khan helped prime minister Boris Johnson win a large Commons majority by taking Wakefield from the so-called “red wall” that had formed Labour’s heartlands in northern England and the Midlands.
It followed a report made by the victim at the time of the assault after he ran to his parents, but no further action was taken because the he did not want to make a formal complaint.
When he learned of Khan’s bid to take the Wakefield seat in 2019, the victim told the jury “it all came flooding back.”
Just days before the ballot, the victim said he reached out to the Tory press office to relay the details of Khan’s assault, but added: “I wasn’t taken very seriously.”
The MP was issued a questionnaire by Staffordshire Police in place of being interviewed under caution at a station because of “Covid protocols in place at the time.” He denied sexual assault.
Khan said he was trying to be “kind” and “helpful” when discussing sexuality with the teenager, who he said appeared “troubled.”
He said the boy had become upset and “bolted” from a bedroom when their conversation turned to the topic of pornography.
He has rejected any suggestion their interaction was of a sexual nature, instead saying he had been engaged in a “philosophical” discussion about sexuality with the teen over the course of the evening.
When asked if he had any agenda in speaking about sexuality, he told Southwark Crown Court: “No, absolutely not. Not at all. I was just trying to be kind and helpful to a young man who wanted to talk.
“He seemed very keen to want to talk about this (sexuality). I think it would have been rude or perhaps a tad cruel to shut him down.”
Khan will be expelled from the House of Commons if he is handed a prison sentence of more than a year, or otherwise could be subject to a petition to oust him in the recall process.
The judge released him on bail, telling him: “You have been convicted by a jury of this offence of sexual assault and you will have to be sentenced in due course.
