Wakefield MP Imran Ahmad Khan trial: Tory press office did not take boy’s sex assault claim seriously, court told

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.

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’.”

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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.

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