Tory MP accused in sex case ‘lifted teenager’s kilt at party’, court hears
A Tory MP asked a teenager if he was "a true Scotsman" and lifted his kilt, before sexually assaulting the youth's 15-yearold brother in a bunkbed, a court has heard.
Imran Ahmad Khan, 48, who was elected as MP for Wakefield in West Yorkshire in 2019, was at a party at a house in Staffordshire in January 2008 at the time of the alleged incidents, a jury was told.
Prosecutor Sean Larkin QC said an 18-year-old man was at the party wearing a kilt when Khan asked him if he was wearing the garment like "a true Scotsman".
"Khan then lifted up the kilt with both hands and lunged at him so that he thought he was going to grab him," Mr Larkin said.
The teenager pushed down his kilt and said that although he had experience of others trying to lift it, the incident "felt very different", the court heard.
Jurors were told the 15-yearold brother was in bed on the top bunk in his pyjamas and could hear Khan's "breathing was getting quite heavy" as he sexually assaulted him.
Mr Larkin said: "When (the complainant) went to bed, Khan stood by that top bunk, reached in and touched his legs, reaching for, or actually touching, his groin. We suggest either way it was sexual assault.
"He pushed him away but he kept going and when it would not stop he fled."
The court heard that the complainant, who cannot be identified because he is the alleged victim of a sexual offence, was "distraught" when he reached his parents.
Police were called to the house and the boy reported the incident, telling officers Khan had asked him to "show me some porn" and told him he was a "good-looking boy", the jury was told.
The 15-year-old did not want to take it any further and the allegation was not pursued at the time, but the complainant went back to police when he found out Khan was standing as an MP, the prosecutor said.
Khan, from Wakefield, helped Prime Minister Boris Johnson win a large Commons majority in 2019 by taking the constituency in the so-called "red wall" that had formed Labour's heartlands in the Midlands and northern England.
Mr Larkin said Khan denies any sexual assault took place.
The trial at Southwark Crown Court continues.