A former Labour mayor who deliberately delayed opening her door to police investigating her son’s rape of a 15-year-old girl has been convicted of perverting the course of justice after she gave him over 90 seconds to conceal crucial evidence.
Naheed Ejaz, 61, who served as Mayor of Bracknell Forest between 2023 and 2024, blocked officers at her home on 12 September 2024 whilst speaking to her son Diwan Khan, 41, in Urdu to discuss what to do with his phone. The device, which was never recovered, is believed to have contained video evidence of Khan sexually assaulting the teenager.
Winchester Crown Court heard during the six-day trial that Ejaz and Khan deliberately avoided using the word “phone” during their Urdu conversation because the word is identical in both languages and would have alerted officers to what they were hiding. Police body-worn camera footage captured Khan saying “the big bell” with Ejaz replying “keep silent, I know.”
Prosecutor Ed Wylde stated the mother and son had been speaking in Urdu when police arrived so they could discuss concealing the phone without officers understanding. He explained they had not mentioned the word phone specifically because it would have “given it away” to the police.
Khan was convicted of raping the pupil after a trial that heard he administered MDMA into vodka for the 15-year-old to drink before assaulting her. The teenager “blacked out” and later woke up in the backseat of his car with no clothes on and no memory of how she got there.
The court was told Khan filmed himself having sex with the unconscious girl, choking her and slapping her face. He later showed her the video and threatened to send it to her mother if she reported the incident. Khan sent the teenager the clip and told her he would “slit her throat” if she told anyone about the assault.
Khan, who appeared alongside his mother at official mayoral functions as Mayor’s Consort on occasions, had already admitted perverting the course of justice in relation to hiding the device before being convicted of rape.
Defending Ejaz, Clare Evans claimed her client had not opened the door to police immediately because she had “gone to wake him up and get him to talk to the officers.” However, the jury rejected this explanation and found her guilty of perverting the course of justice.
During the trial, prosecutor Ed Wylde acknowledged the motivation behind Ejaz’s actions, stating: “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.”
Ejaz herself admitted she let her “mother’s love” cloud her judgement when she obstructed the police investigation. Her mayoral term had recently concluded at the time of the offence in September 2024.
Both mother and son were found guilty following the trial at Winchester Crown Court in Hampshire. They will be sentenced at a later date, with the court expected to schedule the hearing in coming weeks.
The Crown Prosecution Service will likely seek significant custodial sentences for both defendants given the severity of Khan’s rape conviction and Ejaz’s deliberate obstruction of a serious criminal investigation. The destruction or concealment of evidence in rape cases carries substantial penalties under perverting the course of justice charges.
