Former ‘naughty Tory’ MP Elphicke guilty of sex assaults on two women
Former Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke is facing the “very real possibility” of jail and the end of his 25-year marriage - 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-anda-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.
Natalie Elphicke, his wife and successor as Dover MP in 2019, left the court half an hour after the verdict was returned without commenting. In a statement afterwards, she said: “Today’s verdict is one that brings profound sorrow.
“It ends my 25-year marriage to the only man I have ever loved.”
Elphicke left the court 20 minutes later without commenting and got straight into a waiting cab.
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.
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.”
She said she phoned her sister to tell her what had happened after fleeing his home, who later told police the episode sounded like “a sketch from The Benny Hill Show”.
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.”
She said he assaulted her again the following month when he ran his hand up her thigh towards her groin.
The court heard Elphicke had an affair with a third woman, not a complainant in this case, between 2015-17, but that he did not tell Mrs Elphicke until March 2018 when he was questioned by police.