MP tells of his ‘surprise’ when aid worker stripped off and got into bed with him

A Tory MP accused of sexually assaulting a teenager insisted he did not touch the boy at all and said his evidence was ‘ludicrous’.

Imran Ahmad Khan, who is gay, is said to have groped the 15-year-old in the top-bunk after a family party in Staffordshire in January 2008.

The 48-year-old Muslim MP for Wakefield said he went upstairs at the house to sleep after a long day.

‘I came in and he was in bed. I asked him a question, I initiated the conversation.

‘I asked him where the bathroom is and he said by the steps. So I removed my pyjamas from the wash bag, brushed my teeth, changed into my pyjamas and went back up.’

Khan said at that stage the boy wanted to talk.

Gudrun Young QC, defending, asked the MP: ‘What did he say to you?’

Khan replied: ‘I can’t remember the exact words, he just wanted to carry on the conversation we were having.

‘I said you do not need to worry, everything will sort itself out in the fullness of time.’

Ms Young asked: ‘How did he seem?’

Khan replied: ‘Anxious. He did not shout but his voice did rise and fall.

‘He seemed stressed, troubled, like there was a lot that was bottled up, it seemed like meeting me was a catalyst.

‘I said have you ever watched pornography, because if you watch pornography it could reveal where your attractions lie.

‘That had an immediate and dramatic effect. It seemed to trigger something in him. He became very upset, he jumped out of bed and was heading for the door.

‘That is the only time that I touched him. I put my hand on his elbow or his arm and said don’t worry it will all be okay, go back to bed.’

Ms Young asked Khan if the boy went with him to the bathroom.

‘There was no time that I was alone anywhere or at any time with him. He remained in the bed until he left expeditiously.’

Khan said while he was standing by the bed talking to the boy he may have leant on the bunkbed but he never reached through the frame and did not touch him at any stage.

Ms Young asked: ‘Did you touch the frame of the bunk bed?’

Khan replied: ‘I have no recollection, it is possible I leaned on it.’

Ms Young: ‘Did you put your hands through the frame?’

Khan: ‘No.’

Ms Young: ‘Did you touch the covers?’

Khan: ‘No.’

Ms Young: ‘Did you touch him at all whilst this conversation was going on?’

‘Did you try to feel his feet, up his legs, towards the groin area?’

Khan: ‘That did not happen.’

He said he noticed the shadow of someone else in the other bunk but that he did not give much thought as to who it was.

Khan also denied drinking alcohol in the bedroom though he did say he had been drinking downstairs at the party.

Earlier the boy told the court that Khan had thrown his cat which he had been holding before he dragged him down the stairs.

To this Khan said: ‘I do not know where he is getting this from or why he would make it up.

‘The idea that I would get a cat from someone’s arms and throw it against a wall bears no relation to reality whatsoever. It is ludicrous.’

Asked how he felt when he first became aware of the allegations against him, Khan said: ‘Angry, disappointed and bewildered.

‘I could not understand why he had twisted the conversation in the way he had. I put it down to him being a very troubled teenager.’

Earlier this week it was claimed Khan sexually assaulted a foreign aid worker while they were staying in a room at a guesthouse in Peshawar, Pakistan in November 2010.

Khan is not charged in relation to this complaint.

He denies sexual assaulting the 15-year-old boy and the trial continues.

Khan later spoke of his ‘entire sense of disbelief’ to be accused of sexually assaulting two people and told the court: ‘It is hellish, it is a nightmare.’

He said the allegations of had the ‘most terrible repercussions’ for him.

‘I have been the subject of the most vicious attacks and threats, both from my political foes but also from the far right and Islamic extremists.

‘There has been the most vile rubbish written and published on social media and elsewhere,’ he said.

‘The security provision at my home had to be increased.

‘I am the full-time carer for my mum and her health has collapsed.’

The politician said it had been a ‘very dark period’ for him and hindered his ability to represent his constituents.

When his barrister asked him if he had ever inappropriately touched the boy, he replied: ‘There is not truth whatsoever in these allegations, and I am at a complete loss why they has been made, how they has been made and how they have come so far.’

Addressing the accusation from the foreign aid worker, Khan denied the two had ever shared a room. He said the other man had joined him in his room with some whiskey and two glasses after they returned there from a party.

Jurors heard that ‘it was possible’ that Khan had offered the other man a sleeping pill after being asked for one.

Ms Young asked him: ‘Is there anything sinister about that?

‘Were you trying to intoxicate him?’

Khan replied: ‘No, absolutely not.

‘I had every expectation he was going to leave the room and go to his bedroom.’

But Khan said that after he got into bed, he was ‘surprised’ when the other man undressed and joined him.

Ms Young: ‘What did you think, if it isn’t obvious, his intention was?’

Khan said: ‘He was wanting to have some fun.’

He said that the two of them ‘kissed, cuddled and fumbled’ and performed sex acts on each other.

Ms Young said: ‘Was he consenting?’

‘Yes, quite enthusiastically at times,’ replied Khan.

But he said that the following morning, after he tried to perform a sex act on the other man he ‘immediately stopped’ when he was refused by the ‘upset’ aid worker.

‘He said “We shouldn’t have done that, this was a mistake, what did I do that,” said Khan.

‘He was upset, he was I think regretful, deeply regretful, ashamed, I think he was angry that he had allowed this to occur that on the next morning he was regretful of.’

Khan said the other man swiftly left the guesthouse but he was not aware of this allegation until he came forward after the publicity.

Asked how he felt about two separate people accusing him of sexual assault, Khan said: ‘I am living it but I do not quite believe it.

‘There is an entire sense of disbelief to be accused of sexually assaulting someone when you haven’t, and you know you haven’t and then for another one to come up, it is hellish, it is a nightmare.’

The trial continues.