Ex-Tory MP sentenced to 18 months in jail for sexually assaulting teenage boy in 2008

Imran Ahmad Khan, a former Tory MP for Wakefield, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2008.

He was expelled from the Conservative Party after being accused of groping the boy at a house in Staffordshire some 14 years ago. He then had to quit the House of Commons earlier this month after being convicted of the sexual assault charges following a trial at Southwark Crown Court .

Khan, however, has maintained that he is not guilty of the offence and that he would appeal against his conviction, according to a report in The Independent.

The court heard that Khan forced the boy to drink gin at a party in Staffordshire, dragged him upstairs and made him watch pornography before assaulting him. Passing sentence in the case, Justice Jeremy Baker said that Khan has not shown "any remorse," for his actions.

"The only regret you feel is towards yourself for having found yourself in the predicament you face as a result of your actions some 14 years ago," he said. The judge added that Khan displayed a "significant degree of brutality" in the lead up to the assault.

"I am satisfied the complainant was particularly vulnerable. Not only was he 15 years of age at the date of the offence, but I accept his mother's description that he was not very worldly and very young for his age," said Justice Baker.

The judge told Khan: "Although it may well be, over the years, you had let yourself believe you had got away with having committed this offence, I am sure you were aware from the outset there was a risk there would be a day of reckoning."

The victim, who is now 29-years-old, said that he was left feeling "scared, vulnerable, numb, shocked and surprised," after Khan came within "a hair's breadth" of his genitals.

Staffordshire Police had conducted an investigation into the matter for more than a year - but did not make an arrest during that time, according to a report in the BBC. The victim, who was only a teenager then, did not want to make a formal complaint.

Khan used to work for the United Nations as a special assistant for political affairs in Mogadishu before entering parliament. He was elected as Conservative MP for Wakefield, West Yorkshire, in 2019. A by-election in Khan's former seat of Wakefield will be held on June 23.