"Indeed, in our view, the case was far from weak."
Imran Ahmad Khan, a former Wakefield MP, was unsuccessful in appealing his sexual assault charge.
Khan was dismissed from the Conservative Party and given an 18-month prison term in May 2022 for sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy at a party in 2008 after plying him with alcohol.
Imran Khan made two significant appeals for innocence against the historical sexual assault charge.
However, on December 5, 2022, both appeals were rejected by three senior justice judges.
The judges had “no doubt” that the trial was fair and the conviction was secure as they dismissed the conviction appeal, according to Mr Justice Sweeney, Dame Victoria Sharp, and Mr Justice Linden.
Sweeney stated: “The [trial] judge was plainly entitled to conclude that the prosecution case in relation to [the victim’s] complaint was not weak.
“Indeed, in our view, the case was far from weak.
“Against that overall background, we have no doubt that the appellant’s trial was fair and that his conviction was safe.”
In light of Khan’s frail mother’s care requirements and the fact that he was her sole caregiver prior to going to prison, the trial judge allegedly gave the possibility of suspending the sentence.
But after much consideration, the courts ultimately decided custody was essential in all conditions.
“In our view, on the particular facts of this case, he was entitled to reach that conclusion.”
Following his conviction, Khan was expelled from the Tories and announced his resignation, which led to a by-election in the district.
Imran Ahmad Khan, aged 49, challenged his judgement and imprisonment after rejecting the accusation.
In November 2022, his lawyers claimed in the court of appeal that the “unsafe” prosecution’s case about him was strengthened by “bad character evidence” in the shape of a man who claimed Khan had sexually abused him as an adult in Pakistan in 2010.
They said his sentence needed to be suspended since it was a long time since the crime took place.
Passing the sentence in May 2022, 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 [that] 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.”
It is thought that Khan got in touch with the family of the victim in question, two days after securing the West Yorkshire constituency in the general election in December 2019 and expressed concerns about the event.
Later, the victim went to the police to disclose the crime.
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