- Friday, April 19, 2024
By: Pramod Thomas
A court in the UK has heard that a British MP sexually assaulted a man at a guest house in Pakistan around 12 years ago, according to media reports.
Imran Ahmad Khan, the Conservative MP for Wakefield, is on trial at Southwark Crown Court, where he denies sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy at a house in Staffordshire in January 2008.
Meanwhile, a separate witness alleged that the MP assaulted him in his sleep after smoking marijuana and drinking whisky, the BBC reported.
Sean Larkin QC told jurors it was a different allegation against Khan, which was not part of the charge he was being tried on, the report added.
The alleged victim claimed that he had reported the incident to the British High Commission and the Foreign Office. However, he did not go to the Pakistani police because of the MP’s “powerful connections” in the military and government, the BBC report further said.
Jurors were told Khan had been working on a project funded by the Foreign Office at the time of the alleged incident in November 2010.
The man, who was then in his early 20s, told the court that Khan offered him a sleeping pill as they shared a room in a guesthouse in Peshawar.
The witness said he later woke up to find Khan was performing a sex act on him.
“I pushed him off and told him to stop,” the victim was quoted as saying by the BBC.
Jurors heard that Khan and the man had been at a party, on the night of the alleged assault, where everyone was drinking whisky.
“I think generally at these types of events if it had been there both Imran and I would have had some,'” the victim said when asked if he had been smoking marijuana.
The man denied Khan’s lawyer Gudrun Young’s argument that her client “did not like marijuana or the smell of it”
“He has definitely smoked in front of me in the past,” he said.
Young suggested the man’s perception was affected by the alcohol, cannabis and the sleeping pill and, despite being heterosexual, he had consented to sexual activity with Khan.
“I was not consenting,” said the witness.
Last week, the first victim, a Catholic schoolboy, alleged that the actions of the MP were “pretty clear signs of a child molester”.
He told Southwark crown court he had alerted the Conservative Party headquarters about the abuse three days before Khan’s election in 2019.
He added that he called police again after discovering Khan was sending videos to primary schools during the Covid lockdown.
The victim repeatedly broke down in tears as he described events following his sister’s 21st birthday party in January 2008.
Khan, 48, who is Muslim and gay, claimed the Catholic schoolboy become upset after asking for advice about his own sexuality.
Khan, who was elected to parliament in 2019, has denied a single charge of sexual assault. In an earlier statement, Khan said he denied the accusation “in the strongest terms”.
In response to the charge, the Conservative Party suspended the whip pending the outcome of the prosecution. On 10 September 2021, he pleaded not guilty at the Old Bailey. Khan’s trial started on 29 March 2022. The trial continues.
Khan defeated the incumbent Labour MP, Mary Creagh, to become the first Conservative MP for the constituency in 89 years.
