Jury told Nigel Evans assaulted man inside parliamentary bar
A jury has heard MP Nigel Evans allegedly indecently assaulted a man in a parliamentary bar – and also another man at the Conservative Party conference in 2003.
The Ribble Valley independent MP denies one count of rape, two of indecent assault and six of sexual assault from 2002 to 2013.
The trial of Mr Evans, former deputy speaker of the House of Commons, began on Monday at Preston Crown Court with the prosecution outlining its case against the MP.
ITV News reports in May 2010 shortly after the general election, the prosecution alleged Mr Evans was at Strangers Bar in the Houses of Parliament. While there, he was said to have cupped another man’s crotch.
The court heard that Mr Evans was told: “No, that’s not cool.”
The Press Association reports Mr Heywood listed each of the allegations individually.
The first alleged offence happened in late 2002, with the complainant, an openly gay man, aged 27.
One evening he was in a busy Soho bar, either the Red Cube in Leicester Place or the Green Carnation, the jury heard, and Mr Evans was also there.
“He had obviously had quite a lot to drink,” Mr Heywood said of the MP.
“Whilst the complainant was standing talking to someone else he felt a hand going down the back of his trousers.
“The defendant placed four fingers inside the waistband of his trousers, reaching down as far as the web of the thumb would allow.
“So you understand, there was no words, no warning or invitation.
“The complainant neither wanted nor consented to the act.
“He was shocked by it but, and this is, you will see repeated over time, he did not want to cause a fuss because of who Mr Evans was.”
Another alleged assault took place at the Conservative Party conference in Blackpool, in 2003 at a bar called Number 10, inside the Imperial Hotel.
The MP was drinking with a friend at between midnight and 3am and was described as being “plastered”, the court was told.
“Without warning or any kind of invitation” Mr Evans tried to put his hand down a young man’s trousers, the jury heard.
On another occasion, it is alleged a man, then aged 21, accepted an invitation from a friend to see the House of Commons in 2009.
He was in a group with Mr Evans who gathered in the Strangers Bar at the Houses of Parliament.
Mr Evans stood next to the complainant and “without warning or any kind of invitation” he put his right hand underneath the man’s suit and into the top of his waistband He then tried to put his hand down the young man’s trousers, the jury heard.
The MP for Ribble Valley, in Lancashire, denies two counts of indecent assault, six of sexual assault and one of rape.
The trial continues.
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