LONDON: A British court on Monday found Conser­vative MP Imran Ahmad Khan guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy after forcing him to drink gin at a party in 2008.

Imran Ahmad Khan, 47, who represents the northern English city of Wakefield, dragged the boy upstairs and pushed him onto a bed, the court heard.

The unnamed victim told the court he was left feeling “scared, vulnerable and numb” and that Khan applied “slow caressing” to his legs.

Khan said he only touched the teenager’s elbow after he became upset during a conversation about his “confused sexuality”. The victim said he approached the Conservative Party press office days ahead of the 2019 election that saw Mr Khan elected to tell them what had happened, but “I wasn’t taken very seriously”.

Khan has since been suspended from the party. His sentence is to be decided at a later date.

A spokesman for the opposition Labour party said Imran Ahmad Khan, who had denied the charge, should resign so that a new MP could be elected.

Before entering parliament, Khan worked for the United Nations as a special assistant for political affairs in Mogadishu.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2022