r/realbracknell

Jailing the former Mayor of Bracknell, a judge told Ejaz that she ‘chose to protect’ her 41-year-old son despite knowing that his crime involved an ‘underage girl’.

The judge added that because of her actions, ‘there was a real risk Khan might have avoided prosecution for the rape of an unconscious child’.

The court heard that the girl failed her GCSEs and tried to kill herself following the attack.

Prosecutors previously said Ejaz let her ‘mother’s love’ cloud her judgement and hindered police at her home in Bracknell with a ‘conspiracy of silence’. She helped her son ‘conceal’ his phone, which is said to have had the sex attack on it. It was never recovered.

Ejaz will be released no later than 14 months into her sentence to serve the rest on licence.

Sentencing Ejaz, His Honour Judge Rufus Taylor said that she had shown ‘no remorse’ for her offences.

The judge said: ‘You, Naheed Ejaz, may not have known initially why he wanted you to hide [the phone], but your son told you in Urdu ‘Some motherf***r girl has lied about her age to me’ and you chose to protect him.

Judge Taylor said Ejaz knew it ‘involved an underage girl’.

The judge continued: ‘Due to your actions, there was a real risk Khan might have avoided prosecution for the rape of an unconscious child.’

Judge Taylor accepted that Ejaz made a ‘spontaneous decision’ in this incident.

He noted that a character witness described her as an ‘advocate for women’s rights’.

In a victim impact statement read out, the victim said: ‘The actions of Mr Diwan Khan have massively affected me and my family’s lives.

‘At the time of the incident I was still in school and about to do my GCSEs.’

The victim said that she missed a lot of school after the rape.

She continued: ‘This made me fail my GCSEs, and not being able to get into a course I have always dreamed of doing.

‘My mental health has been all over the place due to flashbacks, not being able to sleep.’
Khan – who was Consort of the Mayor during his mother’s tenure – was convicted of raping the 15-year-old girl. He had already admitted to perverting the course of justice in relation to hiding his phone.

It was heard Khan raped the young girl after she ‘blacked out’ from the MDMA that he supplied and put in vodka for her to drink.

The teenager woke up in the backseat of his car with no clothes on and she could not remember what had happened.

However, Khan showed her the video that he filmed of him having sex with her, choking and slapping her in the face.

Khan, who appeared alongside his mother for official functions, threatened her by messaging her to say that he would show her mother the video if she said anything and that she ‘belonged’ to him.

He even sent her the video and told her that he would ‘slit her throat’ if she told anyone.

Prosecutor Ed Wylde previously told the court they had been speaking in Urdu when the police arrived on September 12 2024 so that they could discuss what to do with the phone.

Mr Wylde said that Ejaz and her son had not mentioned the word phone when they were speaking in Urdu because the word is the same and would have ‘given it away’ to the police.
On police body-worn cameras, her son could be heard saying the ‘big bell’, and Ejaz replied, ‘keep silent, I know’.

Defending Ejaz, Clare Evans spoke about the impact that the case has had on her: ‘She is a prisoner in her own home effectively, hopefully that’s something that will abate as the sentence is passed.’

Ejaz was Mayor of Bracknell Forest for 2023/24, with Khan assisting her as Mayor’s Consort on occasions.

Ejaz had raised five children and had set up her own taxi business that she mostly used to help transport people with special needs.

Khan had joined the business as a chauffeur during Covid, dealing with many of the bookings.

A pensioner who has lived for 36 years at her home in Bracknell is facing eviction and possible homelessness after being told she must leave her home.

Kim Gardner, 66, a former restaurant worker, moved into her private rented home in Hamlet Street in Warfield in 1991.

However after getting into financial difficulty, she told The Chronicle she began to struggle with rental arrears due to challenging family circumstances.

She said she has now had to place all of her belongings in her front garden as she had to leave her home on Wednesday, April 29, after receiving an eviction notice last Tuesday.

She said: "[I'm being evicted] because I was in rent arrears.

"I got in contact with my council, then I had a letter saying they were going to take me to court.

"From there, it has escalated.

"Last Tuesday, I got an eviction notice so I have to get out. I could not afford [to pay my rent] and I was low on funds.

"I'm going to see the council to see what they can do. I am so worried but I keep getting messed about."

Mrs Gardner claimed her home suffered a leak for two and a half years which was being mended but said the housing association changed over soon afterwards.

The pensioner said she in now £10,000 in debt.

A spokeswoman from her housing provider, Housing Solutions, said: "We recognise that losing a home is an extremely distressing experience, and it is not something we ever want to see happen.

"Keeping people safely housed is at the heart of what we do, and our priority is always to support residents to stay in and sustain their homes.

"While it would not be appropriate to comment on the specific circumstances of an individual case, we often work with residents over an extended period to prevent situations reaching this point.

"Eviction is never taken lightly and is only considered where we have been unable to resolve matters in any other way."

The richest employees of Bracknell Forest Borough Council have been revealed and some of them are earning four or five times a typical wage.

Bracknell Forest Borough Council has 214 staff earning £50,000 or more, out of which 154 earn 55,000 or more and some are pushing £200,000.

The council’s own figures reveal a striking pay gap between its senior officers and the typical worker.

According to national data whilst the minimum wage is about £24,800 a year before tax, median annual pay across all UK employees is £32,890, and full‑time workers earn about £39,040 a year.

By contrast, more than 214 council staff at Bracknell are paid at least £50,000, meaning each of them takes home at least £11,000 more than the average full‑time salary.

At the very top of the organisation, chief executive Susan Halliwell commands a salary band of over £200,000, putting her pay more than five times higher than the salary a typical full‑time worker in the UK earns.

Sitting just below her, Executive Director: People, Grainne Siggins, is paid over £180,000, four and a half times the national median.

Three other executive directors – Resources boss Stuart McKellar, Place lead Andrew Hunter and Communities chief Kevin Gibbs – all earn at least £150,000 a year.

A large cadre of assistant directors and statutory officers also sit on six‑figure packages.

Director of Public Health, Charlotte Pavitt, takes home over £125,000, while senior legal and social care posts – including Borough Solicitor and Monitoring Officer Sanjay Prashar and the assistant directors for children’s and adults’ social care – earns over £120,000.

These sums dwarf the pay of the average local resident in ordinary jobs. Even one tier down, the money remains well above typical earnings.

Assistant Director: Property Services Sarah Varley receives over £115,000, and Assistant Director: Commissioning Sally Parkinson earns over £110,000.

Key operational posts in highways, planning and digital services all earn over £100,000.

Below that, a further layer of senior managers, from finance and HR leads to policy and corporate improvement chiefs, are paid over £90,000.

In total, the data sets out a tightly controlled hierarchy in which hundreds of officers earn comfortably above both local and national norms.

The very top earners are in a completely different league to the elected representatives who set the direction for the council who, by taking on a lot of responsibility can hope to top up their salaries by £30,000, or to Bracknell people whose council tax funds their wages.

A former mayor and her rapist son, who worked together to stall police after they turned up at their home to question him about the attack, have been jailed.

Naheed Ejaz, 61, was Bracknell Forest Council's first Muslim mayor when she was selected in May 2023 but quit her role as a Labour councillor in October 2024. She was jailed for three years after being found guilty of perverting the course of justice following a trial at Winchester Crown Court.

Diwan Khan, 41, admitted perverting the course of justice and was found guilty of the rape of a 15-year old girl in summer 2024. He was given a jail sentence of 12 years.

His trial heard he plied the victim with ecstasy and vodka before he filmed himself raping her on his mobile phone as she lay unconscious in his car in northeast Hampshire.

Prosecutors said Ejaz and Khan spoke in Urdu when officers turned up at their Bracknell home in September 2024 so they could secretly discuss what to do with his phone.

Judge Rufus Taylor said Ejaz did not know at the time what the phone contained but that by taking it there was a "real risk" Khan "might have avoided prosecution of the rape of an unconscious child".

The phone has never been found.

The court heard Khan's victim said he had told her he was the "mayor's consort".

He attended official events with Ejaz during her time in her role.

Prosecutors said the impact on Khan's victim had been profound and that she was still receiving mental health support.

The court was told Khan has a long criminal history and was jailed for two years for possessing with intent to supply cocaine in 2013.

Ejaz, who had never offended before, arrived in the UK from Pakistan in 1984 and later fled an abusive marriage, the court heard.

Khan admitted perverting the course of justice but denied rape. Ejaz had denied perverting the course of justice. Both were convicted of those charges in February.

Following Ejaz and Khan's convictions, Bracknell Forest Council said it removed a official mayoral portrait of Ejaz at its Time Square headquarters.

The council said on Thursday that it will carry out an investigation into how Ejaz and Khan held taxi licences.

"Given the gravity and seriousness of their crimes, it is right that we carry out an investigation, which will go through the relevant governance process," Halliwell added.

"We cannot comment any further on the investigation until it is concluded later this year.

"In the meantime, we'd again like to express that our sincere and deepest thoughts are with the very brave young victim, her family and her friends."

Det Con Lee Clement, of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary, said:
"The victim in this case has shown considerable bravery during the investigation, and in having to relive her experience in court.

"This attack continues to have a significant impact on her mental health. We hope that this result helps in some way in her recovery.

"Khan targeted a vulnerable teenage girl, and then, along with his mother Ejaz, tried to cover up evidence to hinder our investigation. Khan is deservedly behind bars, and we always believed that Ejaz's behaviour stepped over the threshold into criminality.

"We hope that this result will give confidence to others who have experience these type of offences. You will be listened to and supported, and we have specially trained officers to investigate these offences."

Showing no signs of remorse, she makes various accusations:

"I am at Winchester Crown Court today ready to be sentenced for something I have not done. All I can describe this whole case is the British injustice. I can not go into the details of what has happened. There will be another day for all that but rest assured neither myself nor my son have done anything. My crime is that I was a Labour mayor and I have been convicted for my position, for my ethnicity, for my religion. My son is being convicted for his religion, his age, his ethnicity, his gender. We have been victim of a false allegation blackmail and sadly the system is here to protect the criminals and not the victims of that. Any evidence presented in the court against my son has been doctored, has been planted, has been withheld. So you know in Britain we live in this bubble where we think that justice system is very fair and if we lived a proper life followed the rules we will get justice but sadly that is not true and I have found it to my detriment and the cost of my life."

Claydon Heard, aged 39, of Leaves Green in Bracknell, was sentenced at Reading Crown Court on Monday 27 April, to four years and four months in prison.

Heard pleaded guilty to:
- Three counts of possession with intent to supply class A drugs, namely cocaine
- One count of possession with intent to supply class A drugs, namely heroin
- Three counts of possession of a class B drug, namely cannabis
- Two counts of possession with intent to supply class A drugs, namely crack cocaine

Heard was stopped by officers on multiple occasions in possession of class A and class B drugs. The most recent being on 10 February this year.

https://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/news/thames-valley/news/2026/may/man-jailed-for-drug-offences--bracknell/