MP ON TRIAL: Sexual assault by Wakefield MP is "total fantasy", jurors told by defence counsel

The complainant, who says he was sexually touched by Imran Ahmad Khan in 2008, gave evidence today during the MP's trial at Southwark Crown Court in London.

Jurors were told he had given a statement to the police in the hours after the alleged incident when he was just 15, but did not want to pursue the matter.

But after learning that Khan was planning to stand in the election of 2019, he contacted the police again, and gave subsequent statements in 2019 and then in 2021.

Under cross examination by Khan's defence counsel, Ms Gudrun Young QC, she suggested that he had given different versions of events across the three statements.

She said: "Your account for sexual assault has changed.

"There are three different versions which are really quite contradictory. It's like describing three sets of events."

She asked him why he thought it was not sexual assault back in 2008, but had changed his mind over the years.

The alleged victim said he thought sexual assault was penetrative sex, but learned as he grew older that it meant more, adding: "At the time I did not understand what sexual assault was."

He also said he was so embarrassed by the events at the time, he did not want to talk about the incident, insisting it be dropped and that all he wanted was a letter of apology from Khan.

Ms Young put it to him that following a long conversation with Khan that night about sexuality, and that Khan had suggested they watch porn, he simply panicked and fled the room.

She said: "You had got into a conversation with an adult man, you were out of your depth and which made you feel uncomfortable."

The complainant denied that he and Khan got into a conversation about sexuality at any point.

Ms Young told him: "It's a product of an overactive imagination. You were clearly upset and distressed and I put it you that it was his comment about watching porn is what upset you.

"When you went to your mother you could not tell her the real reason why you were upset, so you came up with a lot of nonsense. It's total fantasy."

Becoming agitated, he said: "Why would I put myself through all of this? What would I get out of it?

"The reason I have done this is so he can't do this to anyone else.

"This has brought me nothing but pain. I have genuinely considered suicide rather than go forward with this."

Ms Young questioned how, in 2008, he gave a very scant account of what happened, but was able to describe the alleged incident in great detail years later.

She said: "You gave the minutest detail which goes on and on.

"It was acted out in perfect sequence, every breath in technicolour.

"The whole account is not a genuine recollection of 2008, it's something you literally made up as you went along."

The complainant responded by saying: "It's not true, I have no reason to make it up."

The trial continues.