A mayor affiliated with the Labour Party assisted in concealing her son’s phone after he committed the rape of a 15-year-old girl. She obstructed police officers from entering their residence and communicated instructions to him in Urdu.
Naheed Ejaz, aged 61, delayed the officers’ entry for more than 90 seconds, providing her 41-year-old son, Diwan Khan, with the opportunity to hide the phone. This device is suspected of containing a video capturing his sexual assault on the teenager.
The former mayor of Bracknell in Berkshire was found guilty of perverting the course of justice, attributing her actions to the influence of ‘mother’s love’ clouding her judgement.
During Khan’s trial, it was revealed that he raped the girl after she lost consciousness due to MDMA he had mixed into vodka for her to drink.
The young victim awoke in the backseat of Khan’s car, undressed, with no recollection of the events that had transpired.
Despite her memory lapse, Khan showed her a video he recorded, depicting him engaging in sexual acts with her, as well as choking and slapping her.
He then threatened the girl with messages saying he would show her mother the video if she said anything about what happened.
Khan, who appeared alongside Ejaz at official functions, even sent the teen the clip and told her that he would ‘slit her throat’ if she told anyone.
Naheed Ejaz, 61, refused to let officers in for over a minute and a half, giving 41-year-old Diwan Khan, time to conceal the device that contained damning evidence
Ejaz (left), who had been Mayor of Bracknell Forest from 2023 to 2024, in Berkshire, and her son, Diwan Khan, who was her Consort of the Mayor, pictured in October 2023
He was convicted of raping the 15 year old girl. He had already admitted perverting the course of justice in relation to hiding his phone.
Ejaz and Khan were found guilty following a six day trial at Winchester Crown Court in Hampshire.
Prosecutor Ed Wylde said that Ejaz had let her ‘mother’s love’ cloud her judgement when she prevented police from entering the property she shared with her son in Bracknell.
He said she had helped her son ‘conceal’ his phone, which is said to have had the video of the sex attack on it. It was never recovered.
He said they had been speaking in Urdu when the police arrived on September 12, 2024, so that they could discuss what to do with the phone.
Mr Wylde said Ejaz and her son had not mentioned the word phone when they were speaking in Urdu because the word is the same and would have ‘given it away’ to the police.
On police body-worn cameras, her son can be heard saying the ‘big bell’, and Ejaz replied, ‘keep silent, I know’.
In his closing speech, Mr Wylde said: ‘[Mr Khan] says the other big bell, meaning the phone and she says “keep silent, I know”. A conspiracy of silence not to give the police the phone.
‘Just give them that one to get them out of the house. She wants the matter dealt with quickly so that they don’t find it.’
He said that she had either hidden the phone on her person or she had left it in her bedroom alongside her screaming grandson.
Mr Wylde said: ‘He is her boy, she was worried about the consequences for him and for her. She was a public figure after all.
‘She is his mum, she loves him. The son still lives at home even though he is approaching 40.
‘A mother’s love is a very powerful emotion. And lying is a very powerful emotion if you can call it an emotion.’
The former town mayor for Bracknell in Berkshire was convicted of perverting the course of justice, saying she let her ‘mother’s love’ cloud her judgement
Previously during the trial, Mr Wylde said: ‘We can’t be sure that Ms Ejaz had any clear idea of the trouble he was in at that time, but a mother’s love for her son will stretch some way, and in this case it stretched into criminality.’
Defending Ejaz, Clare Evans said that she had not opened the door to the police straight away because she had gone to wake him up and get him to talk to the officers.
Ms Evans claimed that she had ‘co-operated’ with the police and was trying to pay ‘lip service’ to her ‘agitated and controlling’ son.
She said: ‘She is paying him lip service. When she is being told by Mr Khan you will not say anything to them and she says no.
‘She goes back to talking to the police. She is trying to shut him up. She was trying to find his phone and get this circus out of her house.’
Ms Evans said that although her son was ordering her not to help the police, she ‘ignored’ him and persisted in searching for the phone.
Khan previously pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice when they came to arrest him, saying he acted like an ‘a******’.
Judge Rufus Taylor said that the police seized 26 sim cards in the house and Ejaz had 12 different contacts for Khan but none of them matched the iPhone 14 phone number.
Defending Khan, Nadia Chbat said that the 15-year-old had lied about her age to Khan, saying she was 22 and had been in a relationship with him.
Ejaz was Mayor of Bracknell Forest for between 2023 and 20224, with Khan assisting her as Mayor’s Consort on occasions.
She had recently finished her year as Mayor at the time of the offence in September 2024.
She had raised daughters and two sons and had set up her own taxi business that she mostly used to help transport people with special needs.
Khan had joined the business as a chauffeur during Covid, dealing with many of the bookings.
Both Ejaz and Khan will be sentenced at a later date.
