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LONDON: A British MP of Pakistani descent has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy following trial by jury.
Imran Ahmad Khan, 48, who is half-Pakistani and half-English, has denied assaulting the teenager after a party at the victim’s family home in Staffordshire in January 2008. It took the jury at Southwark Crown Court on Monday just five hours to convict him. He is thought to be the first sitting British MP convicted of child sex offences.
A spokesperson for the Conservative party told TOI following the verdict: “Imran Khan has been expelled from the Conservative party with immediate effect”. Khan was suspended from the Conservative party when he was charged with the offence and had been sitting as an independent MP ever since. His lawyers said he planned to appeal the verdict.
The court heard that Khan had sexually assaulted the teenager, who is Catholic, following a party at the boy’s family home in Staffordshire in January 2008. Khan, aged 34 at the time, attended the party as a guest. He stayed the night in the family home and shared a bedroom with the victim. The teenager reported that Khan plied him with gin and tonic and sexually assaulted him in his bed. The victim, now 29, reported the crime to police in December 2019 after Khan was elected as MP. The court also heard Khan had performed a sex act on a man in Pakistan in 2010 after a party, where they had been drinking whisky and smoking cannabis.
Khan is due to be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court at a later date. A sentence of over 12 months in jail will automatically disqualify him from being an MP whilst any lesser sentence of imprisonment will trigger a recall petition whereby if 10% of eligible registered voters sign a recall petition calling for him to be removed, the seat becomes vacant and a by-election is required. A recalled MP may stand as a candidate. No recall can be initiated until any appeals process is completed.
A spokesperson for Staffordshire Police said: “We would like to commend the victim for reporting the offence committed against him – he has shown real bravery and courage in doing so. This case has had a huge impact on the victim and his family for a number of years.”
Khan is the first British MP from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. He tried to have the case heard anonymously on the grounds that as an Ahmadi Muslim, the consumption of alcohol and homosexuality are strictly prohibited, and reporting such matters would expose him to a risk to his safety in the UK and overseas. However, his application was rejected by the court. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is persecuted in Pakistan.
Born in Wakefield, his English mother was a nurse and midwife in the city’s hospital and his late Pakistani father Dr Saeed Khan was the area’s first consultant dermatologist.
Khan attended a local private school and then studied Russian at Pushkin Institute in Moscow and read war studies at King’s College London.
He was voted in as the MP for Wakefield, a working class area in Yorkshire, in December 2019, becoming the first Tory MP in the seat since 1932, making it one of the “red wall” seats the Conservatives gained in that election. After being elected, he denied media reports, which stated he was the first openly gay Muslim British MP.
Before becoming an MP, Khan had worked on the frontline as a counter-terrorism expert in the fight against the threat of ISIS and other terror organisations in war-torn countries around the world, including Afghanistan, Somalia and Syria.
Imran Ahmad Khan, 48, who is half-Pakistani and half-English, has denied assaulting the teenager after a party at the victim’s family home in Staffordshire in January 2008. It took the jury at Southwark Crown Court on Monday just five hours to convict him. He is thought to be the first sitting British MP convicted of child sex offences.
A spokesperson for the Conservative party told TOI following the verdict: “Imran Khan has been expelled from the Conservative party with immediate effect”. Khan was suspended from the Conservative party when he was charged with the offence and had been sitting as an independent MP ever since. His lawyers said he planned to appeal the verdict.
The court heard that Khan had sexually assaulted the teenager, who is Catholic, following a party at the boy’s family home in Staffordshire in January 2008. Khan, aged 34 at the time, attended the party as a guest. He stayed the night in the family home and shared a bedroom with the victim. The teenager reported that Khan plied him with gin and tonic and sexually assaulted him in his bed. The victim, now 29, reported the crime to police in December 2019 after Khan was elected as MP. The court also heard Khan had performed a sex act on a man in Pakistan in 2010 after a party, where they had been drinking whisky and smoking cannabis.
Khan is due to be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court at a later date. A sentence of over 12 months in jail will automatically disqualify him from being an MP whilst any lesser sentence of imprisonment will trigger a recall petition whereby if 10% of eligible registered voters sign a recall petition calling for him to be removed, the seat becomes vacant and a by-election is required. A recalled MP may stand as a candidate. No recall can be initiated until any appeals process is completed.
A spokesperson for Staffordshire Police said: “We would like to commend the victim for reporting the offence committed against him – he has shown real bravery and courage in doing so. This case has had a huge impact on the victim and his family for a number of years.”
Khan is the first British MP from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. He tried to have the case heard anonymously on the grounds that as an Ahmadi Muslim, the consumption of alcohol and homosexuality are strictly prohibited, and reporting such matters would expose him to a risk to his safety in the UK and overseas. However, his application was rejected by the court. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is persecuted in Pakistan.
Born in Wakefield, his English mother was a nurse and midwife in the city’s hospital and his late Pakistani father Dr Saeed Khan was the area’s first consultant dermatologist.
Khan attended a local private school and then studied Russian at Pushkin Institute in Moscow and read war studies at King’s College London.
He was voted in as the MP for Wakefield, a working class area in Yorkshire, in December 2019, becoming the first Tory MP in the seat since 1932, making it one of the “red wall” seats the Conservatives gained in that election. After being elected, he denied media reports, which stated he was the first openly gay Muslim British MP.
Before becoming an MP, Khan had worked on the frontline as a counter-terrorism expert in the fight against the threat of ISIS and other terror organisations in war-torn countries around the world, including Afghanistan, Somalia and Syria.
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