A former Conservative MP has been jailed for 18 months after being convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2008.
Imran Ahmad Khan, 48, was expelled from the Conservative Party and later resigned as an MP, triggering a by-election in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, which is due to take place next month.
A jury at Southwark Crown Court heard Khan forced the boy to drink gin and tonic, pushed him on to a bed, and made him watch pornography before the attack at a house in Staffordshire.
Sentencing Khan on Monday, Justice Jeremy Baker said he had shown “no remorse” to the victim, who had been “profoundly psychologically affected.”
The 29-year-old victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said he was left feeling “scared, vulnerable, numb, shocked, and surprised.”
A police report was made at the time but the teenager declined to make a formal complaint.
But he went to the police again after Khan was elected as MP for Wakefield—which had been held by Labour since 1932—at the general election in December 2019.
Khan, who is gay, denied sexual assault and claimed he touched the teenager’s elbow when he “became extremely upset” after a conversation about his confused sexuality.
He said he was trying to be “kind” and “helpful.”
Last month another Conservative MP, Crispin Blunt, posted on his website and on Twitter that Khan had been the victim of a “dreadful miscarriage of justice,” but he later took the message down and apologised.
The Conservative Party condemned Blunt’s comments as “wholly unacceptable” and he later announced he planned to stand down at the next election.
Asked if he therefore thought he knew more than the jury, he said, “Yes inevitably, because quite a lot of the trial was conducted without the jury being present.”
Khan has said he will appeal against the conviction.
The Conservatives have picked local councillor Nadeem Ahmed to be their candidate at the June 23 by-election, while Labour was accused of a “stitch-up” after it overlooked local candidates and chose NHS worker Simon Lightwood.
Labour is hoping to win back the seat, one of the so-called “Red Wall” seats, which fell to the Tories in 2019 after Boris Johnson promised to deliver Brexit.
