Jury deliberates in trial of Middlesbrough actor accused of raping two women

29 August 2025 , 20:26

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Jury deliberates in trial of Middlesbrough actor accused of raping two women

The jury has gone out to consider its verdict in the trial of a Middlesbrough actor accused of raping two women. Rizwan Khan, 40, is alleged to have forced himself on the women in separate incidents a number of years ago.

Khan, of Union Street in central Middlesbrough, denies six counts of rape; sexual assault and causing unnecessary suffering to a child. During the trial, the jury heard from the first woman who alleged that Khan punched her in the face.

The second woman told the court that Khan took her underwear off as she slept. "I kept saying no. I had to be up in a few hours. He said: ’Don’t leave a man like this.’ He just had sex with us. I laid there quiet." She claims she also woke to find him performing a sex act on her, the court was told.

The alleged victim said she didn’t report Khan at the time, telling the jury: "I didn’t think it was rape. I didn’t fight him off. I thought rape was repeatedly saying ’no’ and fighting them off. I didn’t repeatedly say ’no’." She said she later realized what Khan had done to her and called the police.

Khan testified that neither woman had turned down sex with him and it was consensual.

When asked about the accusation that he had slapped a child while looking after them he said: "It didn’t happen."

Khan testified that he used to work in a call center for a finance company before he later moved into acting. He said that he started going to the gym more regularly as acting jobs came in, in London and Manchester.

A statement from Kelly Rowe, a Teesside University lecturer, was read out to the court. She said she’s known Khan since 1997, when he was a child in hospital and she was a pediatric nurse there. Khan suffers from a lung condition and Ms. Rowe said that he had come into the university as a service user, to talk to nursing students about what it is like to live with a long-term illness.

Ms. Rowe described Khan as: "Lovely, caring, kind and approachable. When he has spoken to the students he has shown professionalism and has always been fun."

Emma Davis