On 30 July, after being found guilty of sexually assaulting two women, the judge told Charlie Elphicke, the former MP for Dover, that he faced “the very real possibility” of a jail sentence.
If that happens, he would become the first MP for nearly sixty years to go to prison for sex offences. But unlike Elphicke, Sir Ian Horobin’s reputation remained unblemished while he was in the Commons. A notably courageous Japanese prisoner or war, he held junior office before losing his Oldham East seat in 1959, one of the few Tory casualties in the year of Harold Macmillan’s election triumph.
His gazetted life peerage had to be hurriedly cancelled to Macmillan’s “great distress” in 1962 when he was accused of indecent assaults as warden of a boys club in the East End. At his trial he was defended by his friend Peter Rawlinson, a future attorney-general. He was totally repentant after being sentenced to four years in jail. “I broke the law with my eyes open”, he said, “I have not the slightest intention of paying any attention to it.”
