A TORY MP has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.
Imran Ahmad Khan, 48, was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court on Monday of the sexual assault at a house in Staffordshire in 2008.
The Labour Party have called for Khan's resignation following the verdict.
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The victim said he wasn’t “taken very seriously” when he made the allegation to the Conservative Party press office days before Khan was elected as the MP for Wakefield in West Yorkshire in the December 2019 General Election.
He made a complaint to police days after Khan helped Prime Minister Boris Johnson win a large Commons majority by taking Wakefield in the so-called “red wall” that had formed Labour’s heartlands in the Midlands and northern England.
The MP dragged the teenager upstairs, pushed him onto a bed and asked him to watch pornography before the attack at a house in Staffordshire, a court heard.
%image('13668057', type="article-full", alt="Khan was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court of sexual assault")
The victim, now in his late 20s, told a jury he was left feeling “scared, vulnerable, numb, shocked and surprised” after Khan touched his feet and legs, coming within “a hair’s breadth” of his privates, as he tried to sleep in a top bunkbed.
He ran to his parents and a police report was made at the time, but no further action was taken because the youngster did not want to make a formal complaint.
But he told jurors “it all came flooding back” when he learned Khan was standing in the December 2019 General Election.
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The Tory hopeful was literally parachuted into the constituency in a skydiving stunt after he was selected to replace Antony Calvert weeks before the election.
Days ahead of the poll, the victim said he contacted the Conservative Party press office, to tell them what Khan had done to him, but added: “I wasn’t taken very seriously.”
Khan, who was sent a questionnaire by Staffordshire Police rather than being interviewed under caution at a station because of “Covid protocols in place at the time”, denied sexual assault.
%image('12978426', type="article-full", alt="Khan was one of the 'red wall' Tory MPs who helped secure Johnson's majority in Westminster")
Khan, who is gay and a Muslim, denied sexual assault, claiming he only touched the Catholic teenager’s elbow when he “became extremely upset” after a conversation about his confused sexuality.
But the MP, who has been suspended by the Conservative Party, was found guilty by a jury at Southwark Crown Court on Monday by a jury after around five hours of deliberations.
The judge, Justice Baker, said he will sentence Khan on a later date.
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He will be thrown out of 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.
A Labour Party spokesman said: “Imran Ahmad Khan should immediately resign so a by-election can take place and the people of Wakefield can get the representation they deserve.”
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