Tory MP Told About 'Assaults' By Nigel Evans

A Tory MP has told a court she was frustrated allegations of sexual assault and rape made against Nigel Evans MP could not be investigated by the Speaker of the House of Commons.

Dr Sarah Wollaston says she made an appointment with the Speaker, John Bercow, in April last year after a parliamentary aide told her Evans had assaulted him, and a student told her he had been raped by Evans, who was then Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons.

However, she told the court that Mr Bercow took advice and was told it was not a matter he could investigate.

Dr Wollaston says she then received a phone call from the Metropolitan Police about the allegations.

She says she did not feel it was her place to report the matter but took the officer's contact details and gave them to the alleged victims.

Dr Wollaston, who is the MP for Totnes, told the jury she first became aware of the allegations in March of last year.

She said she was in the Strangers' Bar in the House of Commons with a group of people when a Parliamentary aide "alluded to having been assaulted by an MP".

She told the court: "I felt it wasn't the right setting to have a conversation."

But she added: "I didn't want to cut him off or make light of it."

She asked the man to make an appointment with her to discuss it further. That meeting took place the following month, the court heard.

Dr Wollaston told the court the man said he had been a guest at a party Mr Evans' home in 2009.

He told her at the end of the evening he had slept on the sofa, but had woken in the night to find Evans' hand down his boxer shorts.

"He said he was very angry, very upset by it. He pushed Evans away violently," she told the court.

She said she was then contacted on the telephone by the student who claims Evans raped him.

Dr Wollaston told the court he had described being a guest at Mr Evans' home.

She said: "He told me that Evans had had pushed him into his room.

"He then told me that he woke in the night to find Evans on top of him.

"He told me that he had just been frozen. I asked him if it would have been clear whether he was consenting. He said it would have been clear he was not consenting."

Dr Wollaston said that she advised the 22-year-old man to go to the police.

Evans, who has since stood down as Deputy Speaker but is still Conservative MP for Ribble Valley, denies all the charges against him.

The trial continues.