The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
‘Naughty Tory’ Elphicke faces jail for sex assaults
Former lawyer found guilty after three-and-ahalf week trial
Married former Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke is facing the “very real possibility” of jail after being convicted of sexually assaulting two women in near-identical circumstances, later describing himself to them as “naughty”.
The jury at Southwark Crown Court dismissed the 49-year-old’s claims his accusers were lying, instead believing victims who gave tearful evidence during a three-and-a-half week trial.
Elphicke, a former lawyer who admitted lying to police, his wife and party bosses when the allegations were first put to him, sighed and looked at his lawyer as the jury foreman recorded guilty verdicts in each of the three sexual assault allegations.
Judge Mrs Justice Whipple released Elphicke on bail to be sentenced in September but warned: “All (sentencing) options remain open.
“There is a very real possibility he faces immediate custody.”
The jury of 11, comprising eight women and three men, took two days to reach their verdicts.
Elphicke was Dover MP between 2010 and 2019 when he was succeeded by his wife Natalie Elphicke, who was not present in the courtroom as the verdicts were returned.
The first offence took place in Elphicke’s London home in summer 2007, when he invited a woman in her early 30s to share a drink with him while his children were asleep and his wife was away with work.
The woman said Elphicke asked her about bondage and sex, then kissed her and groped her breast before chasing her around his home chanting “I’m a naughty Tory.”
The second complainant, a parliamentary worker in her early 20s, said Elphicke also tried to kiss her and then groped her when they met for a drink in Westminster in April 2016.
He then told her: “I’m so naughty sometimes.”
The court heard Elphicke had an affair with a third woman, not a complainant in this case, between 2015 and 2017, but that he did not tell Mrs Elphicke until March 2018 when he was questioned by police.
None of the three women can be named for legal reasons.
The court heard Elphicke initially denied any knowledge of the allegations against the parliamentary worker when he was summoned before Tory party whips in January 2017.