Ribble Valley MP sex trial to start soon

Evans (56), of Pendleton, formally entered not guilty pleas to charges of rape and sexual assault at a case management hearing at thew crown court in January.

The charges date from 2002 to 2013 and relate to a total of seven men.

The indecent assaults are alleged to have been committed between January 1st, 2002, and January 1st, 2004, the sexual assaults (said to be touching without consent) between January 1st, 2009, and April 1st last year and the rape between March 29th and April 1st, 2013.

Evans was elected as the Conservative MP for the Ribble Valley in 1992, but resigned the party whip when he became a Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons in 2010, as it is a politically neutral role.

He has not sought to reclaim the Tory whip in the Commons since his resignation from the Deputy Speaker post, but instead represents his constituency as an independent.