Now there’s a headline:

Crispin Blunt’s defence of sex offender MP revives stench of impunity

The attempt by Crispin Blunt to taint a court’s verdict of sexual assault against the former Tory MP Imran Ahmad Khan will put the apparent culture of impunity at the Palace of Westminster in the spotlight again.

While the #MeToo scandal led to major reforms to try to protect staff members and parliamentary aides from bullying and abuse, there have been multiple attempts over the past few years to cast aspersions on those seeking justice.

Three Conservative MPs in recent years have been found by courts to have committed sexual assault or rape, two of them with character references provided by fellow Conservatives. Throughout the trial, Ahmad Khan sought to block reporting of the case in which a jury found he had plied a teenager with alcohol and assaulted him.

Blunt, a former justice minister, said he had been prepared to give evidence to defend Ahmad Khan, but according to reporters who covered the trial, he had not attended for the prosecution’s case, where the victim’s parents were said to have been reduced to tears describing the effect of the assault on their teenage boy. Blunt attended only for the defence and summing up.

I guess he didn’t want to bias himself.