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Ex-MP Charlie Elphicke said ‘we're all at it’ after ‘sexually assaulting woman’

Former Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke arriving at Southwark Crown Court, where he faces three charges of sexual assault.
Former Tory MP Charlie Elphicke arriving at Southwark Crown Court. (Getty)

Former Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke sexually assaulted a woman and told her “I’m a naughty Tory, we’re all at it”, a court has heard.

The woman’s brother, who cannot be named due to laws protecting the identity of the complainant, told jurors his sister was “hysterical” and “could hardly get her words out” when she phoned him to tell him what had happened.

The alleged incident took place at Elphicke’s family home in central London in 2007, three years before he was elected to represent Dover in Parliament.

The court heard Elphicke, who was 36 at the time, tried to kiss the woman then groped her breast and chased her around his home while trying to grab her bottom.

His wife Natalie, who has succeeded him as MP for Dover, was away and his children were upstairs asleep, the jury was told.

Former Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke arriving at Southwark Crown Court, London, alongside MP for Dover Natalie Elphicke, where he faces three charges of sexual assault.
Charlie Elphicke alongside his wife, current MP for Dover Natalie Elphicke. (Getty)

The witness told the trial at Southwark Crown Court he spoke with his sister face-to-face a couple of days after her initial phone call, and she disclosed further details.

He told the court: “She said he [Elphicke] was saying, ‘I’m a naughty Tory, we’re all at it’.

“She said she was sat down having a glass of wine with him at his request. He made advances towards her and made a lunge at her.

“She was upset. She found it hard to give a systematic account. She said she was ‘attacked’, she was ‘assaulted’, words like that.

“She indicated it was a sexual assault, he tried to grope her in sexual places and tried to kiss her. She told me she pushed him away.”

Defence counsel Ian Winter QC said the brother’s police statement, taken a decade later, made no mention of the phrase “we’re all at it”, and suggested it was a detail added to his account following conversations with his sister.

Local MP Charlie Elphicke after a meeting alongside Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes and Border Force officers in Dover, to discuss migrants' attempts to reach Britain by small boat.
Charlie Elphicke is on trial for allegedly sexually assaulting two women. (Getty)

The brother said his sister was “hysterical” when she first called him.

Earlier, the woman’s sister described receiving a similar call moments after the incident.

She told the court: “She was clearly distressed, she was saying, ‘He chased me round the kitchen.’

“It was a highly emotionally charged situation.

“When I recalled it to my husband (later), it just seemed totally bizarre. It seemed like something out of sketch show Benny Hill.”

The MP, 49, is also accused of sexually assaulting a second woman, in 2016, who worked in Parliament during the defendant’s time as an MP.

Elphicke, Dover MP from 2010 until 2019 when he stood down and was succeeded by his wife, denies three counts of sexual assault.

The trial continues.