Disgraced Tory facing prison
COURTS: Former Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke faces prison amid the end of his 25-year marriage after he was convicted yesterday of sexually assaulting two women.
A court heard the assaults happened in near-identical circumstances, with the 49-year-old describing himself as “naughty”.
FORMER CONSERVATIVE MP Charlie Elphicke faces prison – and the end of his 25-year marriage – after being convicted of sexually assaulting two women.
A court heard the assaults happened in near-identical circumstances, with the 49-year-old describing himself as “naughty”.
The jury at Southwark Crown Court dismissed his claims that the women were lying, instead believing his victims, who gave tearful evidence during the three and a half week trial.
Elphicke, a former lawyer, admitted lying to police, his wife and party bosses when the allegations were first put to him.
He 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 30 minutes after the verdict without commenting.
In a statement later, she said: “Today’s verdict is one that brings profound sorrow. It ends my 25year marriage to the only man I have ever loved.”
Elphicke left court 20 minutes later without commenting and got into a waiting cab.
Judge Mrs Justice Whipple released him on bail to be sentenced in September but warned: “All options remain open. There is a very real possibility he faces immediate custody.”
The jury of 11 – 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, who was not present in the courtroom as the verdicts were returned.
The court heard 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.
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”.
Breaking down in court, she told jurors: “I was just shocked – really, really shocked. He was saying really bizarre things that are embarrassing like ‘I’m a naughty Tory’. I couldn’t understand what was happening.”
The victim said Elphicke was
“very animated, excited and clearly enjoying himself”. She said she phoned her sister to tell her what had happened after fleeing his home.
The second complainant, a parliamentary worker in her early 20s, said Elphicke tried to kiss her then groped her when they met for a drink in Westminster in April 2016. He told her: “I’m so naughty sometimes.”
The victim said: “He had his mouth open, continually trying to kiss me. It was like a disgusting, slobbery mess.”
She said she spurned his sexual advances, telling jurors she was physically repulsed by him and that Elphicke told her he had “not been happy for years” in his marriage. She said he assaulted her again the following month when he ran his hand up her thigh towards her groin.
Elphicke admitted he kissed the first complainant but felt it was something they both wanted.
He told jurors he was “besotted” with the second complainant but denied assaulting her.
Elphicke had the party whip suspended in 2017 when allegations of sexual assault emerged but it was controversially reinstated a year later for a crucial confidence vote in then-prime Minister Theresa May.
The whip was withdrawn again next summer when the Crown Prosecution Service announced it was charging him.
He had his mouth open... it was a disgusting slobbery mess.
The second woman to complain about the former Dover MP.