Naheed Ejaz, the former mayor of Bracknell Forest, has been sentenced to three years in prison for perverting the course of justice by helping her son conceal his rape of an unconscious teenage girl.
The 61-year-old, who served as mayor from May 2023 to May 2024, was found guilty at Winchester Crown Court. Her son, Diwan Khan, 41, was jailed for 12 years with an extended five-year licence for rape and perverting the course of justice. He had drugged the girl with MDMA-laced vodka before raping her in his car in Hampshire in July 2024.
Ejaz delayed police officers when they arrived at her home to arrest Khan on September 12, 2024. Body-worn camera footage captured a conversation in Urdu between mother and son about hiding something, later translated. The phone used to film the rape has never been found.
Khan, who acted as his mother's mayoral consort, was also given a sexual harm prevention order for 20 years, an indefinite restraining order, and will be on the sex offenders register for life. Bracknell Forest Council has removed Ejaz's portrait from its gallery of former mayors and launched an investigation into their taxi licensing.
Detective Constable Lee Clement praised the victim's bravery, stating: 'Khan targeted a vulnerable teenage girl, and then, along with his mother Ejaz, tried to cover up evidence to hinder our investigation.' The council's chief executive, Susan Halliwell, expressed condolences to the victim, calling the crimes 'heinous' and 'abhorrent.'
