Accuser tells Charlie Elphicke trial of 'odd and scary' events

One of two women who have accused a former Conservative MP of sexually assaulting them has told his trial of her fear during an alleged incident at his home in which he allegedly groped and pursued her before she locked herself in a room.

Giving evidence via video link and crying at one point, she described the alleged events in 2007 at the London home of Charlie Elphicke and his family as “embarrassing, odd and scary”.

Elphicke, who represented the Kent constituency of Dover and Deal from 2010 until last year and served as a government whip, is on trial at Southwark crown court, where he denies three counts of sexual assault. He lost the Tory whip in 2017 when the allegations were referred to the police but was reinstated in December 2018 before a vote of confidence in the then prime minister, Theresa May. He did not stand as a candidate at the 2019 general election.

On the second day of his trial, the woman who alleges that he assaulted her on an evening in 2007 at his family’s home in west London described how they had been chatting with him and sharing a bottle of wine on an evening when the future MP’s wife was away and his children had been asleep upstairs.

As they sat on a sofa, she said she was taken by surprise when he suddenly tried to kiss her and pushed her back into “a sprawling position” before putting his knee between her legs and groping her breast.

The woman, who was in her 20s at the time, recalled shouting “no” or “get off”, and told the court: “I pushed him with what I would say was a lot of force and I just ran away basically. My adrenaline was going and I just had to get out of there.”

Elphicke pursued her, she said, repeating “I’m a naughty Tory” in a singsong voice and managing to make contact with her bottom before she locked herself in a downstairs room.

“I was really worried about what he would do if he came back downstairs. He was knocking on the door,” she told the court, adding that she later got into a taxi.

The woman was prompted to come forward after reports about the publication of a list of names of government ministers and MPs from different parties who were alleged to have acted inappropriately on the parliamentary estate.

However, she told that court she did not hear back from her local police force after she reported the alleged incident, and subsequently contacted the Metropolitan police on the advice of a lawyer.

Elphicke also faces allegations of two sexual assaults in 2016 against another woman, who was working in Westminster at the time.

The court was told on Monday that when police questioned Elphicke in 2018, he said of the 2007 incident that the woman had been feeding chocolate stars into his mouth and had been “tactile”. He claimed he kissed her on the lips and she “responded positively”, but she then said it was not what she wanted and he “immediately” stopped.

He also denied having described himself as a “naughty Tory”, the prosecutor said.

The case continues.