Disgraced Tory MP who groped teenager is released from prison

Disgraced former Conservative MP Imran Ahmad Khan who was jailed for groping a 15-year-old boy is released from jail halfway through his 18-month sentence

• Imran Khan jailed last year for 18 months after being found guilty of sex assault
• Ex-Wakefield MP was convicted of groping a 15-year-old boy at a party in 2008
• He was pictured with long hair and a beard upon leaving HMP Brixton 

A disgraced former Tory MP who was jailed for groping a teenage boy has today been freed after serving half his prison sentence.

Imran Ahmad Khan, former MP for Wakefield, was jailed last May for 18 months after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting the 15-year-old following a party in 2008.

Khan, who was pictured with long billowing hair and a beard, was seen leaving HMP Brixton, in south London, at around 10am on Tuesday morning.

The 49-year-old lost a Court of Appeal challenge against his conviction and sentence in December. 

Disgraced former Tory MP Imran Ahmad Khan, who was jailed for groping a teenage boy in 2008, has been freed after serving half his prison sentence

Khan was pictured with long, billowing hair and a beard upon leaving HMP Brixton on Tuesday morning

Prisoners with a fixed-term sentence are normally released after serving half of their time behind bars, while those who are handed sentences longer than 12 months are released on probation. 

Wakefield Councillor and former agent Tony Homewood, who filmed Khan leaving prison, could be heard calling for him to apologise to his former constituents.

He said on the tape: ‘I wonder if you had anything to say to the people of Wakefield who voted for you in their droves, or whether you’ve got any sort of apology?

‘I came all this way to see if you’ve got an apology for the people of Wakefield, who voted for you and who you manifestly let down.’

Jurors at Khan’s trial last May were told how the defendant groped his victim as he lay in his bunk bed following a party at a house in Staffordshire 15 years ago.

Khan was a friend of a friend of the family hosting the gathering, and later admitted he had been talking to the boy earlier in the evening about sexuality.

The victim said Khan had told him he was a good-looking and intelligent boy.

But later, he dragged the boy up the stairs, who had been play fighting with him, forced him to drink gin and encouraged him to put pornographic films on his computer, a court heard.

Minutes after the lights went out, the boy said he realised Khan was standing by his bunk and was feeling his leg before moving closer to his groin area.

He said that he heard Khan’s breathing become deeper as he moved around the bed to continue touching him.

It was at this point that the boy ran out of the bedroom towards his parents’ room in a distressed state.

Police were called and the youngster gave a statement but did not want to take the matter further out of embarrassment.

This was until 2019 when the complainant, now an adult, saw that Khan was standing in the election to contest the Wakefield seat.

The victim, who cannot be identified, said he waited until after the election because he did not want to influence the outcome.

Former MP Imran Ahmad Khan is pictured arriving at Southwark Crown Court, south London, May 23, 2022

Khan was expelled from the Conservative Party and resigned following his conviction, triggering a by-election in the constituency which was later won by Labour

Two days after winning his West Yorkshire seat in the December 2019 general election, Khan contacted one of the victim’s relatives expressing concerns about the 2008 incident, and the victim later went to police.

Khan was expelled from the Conservative Party and resigned following his conviction, triggering a by-election in the constituency which was won by Labour.

His court case heard that he displayed a ‘significant degree of brutality’ in the lead-up to the assault at a house in Staffordshire, as he dragged his victim upstairs and threw him on to a bed, forcing the then teenager to drink gin and tonic and asking him to watch pornography.

Sentencing him, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker said: ‘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.

‘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.’

Wakefield-born Khan became the first Conservative MP to win the city seat in nearly 90 years during the 2019 general election, and caused an upset by defeating Labour’s Mary Creagh. 

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