Charlie Elphicke: Woman describes being chased after alleged sexual assault
Defendant denies three counts of sexual assault against two women
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A woman has described being chased around former Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke’s home after he groped her while he chanted, ”I’m a naughty Tory”.
The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, told a jury it felt as though Mr Elphicke was “racing” her around his home in central London in 2007, while trying to grab her bottom.
The alleged victim had rejected Mr Elphicke’s advances moments earlier as they shared a £40 bottle of wine, as the politician’s children slept upstairs and his wife, Natalie Elphicke, was away on business, Southwark Crown Court heard.
Giving evidence via video-link, the woman said she thought of Mr Elphicke – who did not become an MP until three years later – as “asexual”, so found it “odd” when he began asking her about her sexual preferences.
She said: “He started talking about what we [the alleged victim and her boyfriend] liked in a sexual way. I sort of wagged my finger at him and said: ‘We don’t need to talk about that kind of thing’.
“He was like a totally asexual person, to me. He started saying, ‘Do you like silk and leather?’ and bondage.
“He was jovial, jokey, excited maybe, in an animated way. I was just thinking ‘Oh god, how embarrassing’.”
The woman said the conversation continued for “a couple of sentences” before he “basically jumped” on her, the court heard.
She said: “He tried to kiss me and I moved my head, he pushed me down by my shoulders, he had his knee between my legs and he was groping my breast.”
The witness said she told Mr Elphicke to “get off” and she ran away. ”I just thought ‘I’ve got to get out of here’,” she told the jury. ”My adrenaline was going. I was just shocked – really, really shocked.
“I never thought in a million years that he was that kind of person, that he would do anything like that.”
She said Mr Elphicke then pursued her around his home as she moved away.
She said: “He was saying really bizarre things that are embarrassing like, ‘I’m a naughty Tory’.
“He was trying to grope me and trying to grab my bum. He was following me, it was like a race,” she said. ”I couldn’t understand what was happening.”
The witness told jurors she managed to escape Mr Elphicke and get into a taxi. ”I was scared,” she said. ”The whole thing was really embarrassing and odd.”
Mr Elphicke denies three counts of sexual assault against two women, between 2007 and 2016.
Jurors have been told of a second woman who said she found herself in Mr Elphicke’s company, sharing a bottle of champagne in Westminster, when he allegedly assaulted her.
The young woman, a parliamentary worker, said he tried to kiss her before groping her. “He had his mouth open, continually trying to kiss me,” she said. ”It was like a disgusting slobbery mess.”
Prosecutor Eloise Marshall QC said the woman “clearly rejected” Mr Elphicke, told him she was married, and that there was a large age gap.
Ms Marshall told jurors he also said to the woman: “Oh, I’m naughty sometimes, aren’t I? I can be so badly behaved, but I can’t help it.”
Mr Elphicke was elected as MP for Dover in 2010 and held the seat until standing down at the general election in December 2019. His wife, Natalie, succeeded him.
The trial continues.
Additional reporting by Press Association