Former Tory MP Imran Ahmad Khan loses appeal against jail sentence after groping teenage boy

5 December 2022, 17:47

A former Tory MP has lost his appeal against a prison sentence handed down for groping a 15-year-old boy.

Imran Ahmad Khan, 49, was jailed for 18 months at Southwark Crown Court in May, after being found guilty of sexual assaulting the teenager after a party in 2008.

A judge has now ruled that the conviction was not "unsafe", contrary to Khan's lawyers' arguments.

Khan forced the boy to drink gin and tonic, pushed him on to a bed and asked him to watch pornography before he launched his attack at a house in Staffordshire in January 2008.

MP Imran Ahmad Khan arrives for sexual assault sentencing

The victim was left feeling feeling "scared, vulnerable, numb, shocked and surprised" after Khan touched his feet and legs, and came within a “hair’s breadth” of his private parts.

Now aged 29, he said he was going to sleep in a top bunkbed after a party when the attack happened.Khan, 48, was 34 at the time. A police report was made after the incident but no further action was taken because the victim did not want to make a formal complaint.

He later submitted one after Khan was elected to represent Wakefield in the 2019 general election.

Khan denied sexual assault during his trial, and said he only touched the boy's elbow when he became "extremely upset" following a conversation about sexuality.

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He claimed he wanted to be "kind" to the teenager but the ex Tory, who is gay, was found guilty by a jury.He has already said he will appeal against his conviction, and has resigned his seat.

But he controversially got support from Crispin Blunt, a former justice minister who claimed his ex-colleague did not get a "fair trial".

Mr Blunt then announced he would step down at the next election after backlash at his defence of Khan.

Khan brought an appeal against his conviction and sentence, which was heard at the Court of Appeal in November.

His lawyers argued that his conviction was "unsafe" because the case against him was "weak" and was bolstered by "bad character evidence" in the form of a man who alleged he had been sexually assaulted as an adult by Khan in Pakistan in 2010.

They also argued his jail term was too long for the offence and should have been suspended. But both appeals were dismissed by three senior judges in a ruling on Monday.

Dismissing the conviction appeal, Mr Justice Sweeney, sitting with Dame Victoria Sharp and Mr Justice Linden, said: "The (trial) judge was plainly entitled to conclude that the prosecution case in relation to (the victim's) complaint was not weak. Indeed, in our view, the case was far from weak."

He added: "Against that overall background, we have no doubt that the appellant's trial was fair and that his conviction was safe."

Mr Justice Sweeney said the judge also gave due consideration to suspending the sentence, especially in light of Khan's frail mother's care needs and the fact he was her sole carer before he was jailed, but concluded custody was necessary in all the circumstances.

He added: "In our view, on the particular facts of this case, he was entitled to reach that conclusion."