A survivor of the Rotherham child abuse grooming scandal has condemned the Conservatives for appointing an MP who is now a convicted sex offender as an adviser on child exploitation after being questioned under caution. Sammy Woodhouse said it was “gut-wrenching” that her fellow contributor to a Home Office expert panel, Imran Ahmad Khan, had already been questioned by police about the assault of a 15-year-old boy when they served together on a Home Office panel. Khan was found guilty this month of molesting his victim, who told the court that the Conservative party had also been warned about the MP while he was standing for office but had taken no action. The Guardian disclosed Khan’s appointment to the panel on Tuesday. At prime minister’s questions, Boris Johnson refused to condemn the appointment of Khan. Woodhouse, who was 14 when she was groomed by a 24-year-old grooming gang leader, attended online meetings with Khan in 2020 following an invitation from the Home Office. She said she was disgusted by his role on the committee. “This was important work that I undertook in good faith, but I am disgusted to have been put in a position where I was working with a man later convicted for child sexual assault. “Knowing now that the Conservatives had already received complaints from a victim about this man, it is gut-wrenching for me as a survivor that they could possibly have allowed him to be considered for this role,” she said. Khan attended online meetings with the panel of sexual exploitation experts in July, September and November of 2020. Staffordshire police say he gave a written statement after being questioned in May 2020 addressing claims he had assaulted a minor.
Khan was elected in December 2019. A few days before the general election, his victim, then 24, called the Conservative party and told them about the abuse he had suffered at the hands of Khan, he told the court. The assault took place in January 2008 when Khan was 34 and prior to him becoming an MP. Khan tried to force the 15-year-old to drink alcohol before sexually assaulting him in a house in Staffordshire. The boy immediately told his parents about the sexual assault. After Khan had been elected as the MP for Wakefield, the victim decided to pursue the complaint as he was concerned that Khan was not fit to be in public office, he told the court. Staffordshire police launched an inquiry into Khan, sending him a questionnaire about the incident in line with Covid restrictions. Khan replied with a statement under caution in May 2020, a police spokesperson said. A Home Office spokesperson said on Tuesday that neither Patel nor the Home Office were aware of the claims against Khan before they were made public in 2021. “In his role as an MP, Mr Khan was asked along with several others to peer review a Home Office research paper. The Home Office was not aware of the allegations against him at the time and he no longer has any involvement with the department.” In the Commons, the MP for Manchester Withington, Jeff Smith, asked if Johnson would apologise for the failure of the Tories to take the allegations from Khan’s victim seriously. Johnson replied: “I believe the Home Office has already made a statement about it.” Khan was charged in 2021 and subsequently found guilty and has been warned he faces a jail sentence. He has said he will resign from his seat but so far he has not. Labour MP Louise Haigh has demanded that the home secretary, Priti Patel, and Johnson “come clean” on what the Conservative party knew about the reports of child sexual abuse against Khan. “Khan’s victim told the Conservatives about sickening sexual abuse, and they did nothing, and then shamefully appointed him to sit alongside survivors of child sexual exploitation.” “How could they possibly have put victims in this position?” A Conservative party spokesperson said on Tuesday: “We have found no record of this complaint.”