Thaindian News

London, May 2 (ANI): A married man, who has been tipped as the next Prime Minister of Canada, is said to have been found naked by police in a suspected illegal brothel.

Jack Layton, 60, the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), was discovered lying on a bed in a room with a 5ft 10in Asian woman in her mid-20s during a police search for underage prostitutes in 1996.

According to the Sun News Network, a retired Asian crime unit officer said the married Layton, who was a Toronto city councillor at the time, was cautioned and released without charge.

In a campaign that has been overshadowed by the royal wedding and hockey playoffs the report comes a critical time - just one day before Canadians go to the polls for the fourth time in seven years.

Layton’s popularity surge is unprecedented in recent Canadian political history with polls and political analysts even tipping him to become the country’s first NDP Prime Minister.

Olivia Chow, Layton’s wife and a New Democratic Party MP seeking re-election in Toronto, issued a statement saying her husband told her about the incident at the time it happened.

“No one was more surprised than my husband when the police informed him of allegations of potential wrongdoing at this establishment,” the Daily Mail quoted her as saying.

“Any insinuation of wrongdoing on the part of my husband is completely and utterly false,” she stated.

Chow described the business as a “massage clinic” that was registered with the City of Toronto.

The notebook of the officer who questioned Layton details how the NDP leader was asked whether he received any services of a sexual nature, to which he replied: “No sir, I was just getting a shiatsu.”

The officer then asked Layton if he knew that sex acts were being carried out in the building, to which he replied: “No sir.”

The policeman’s notes also detail how the woman, from China, denied carrying out a sex act on Layton.

During an unscheduled press call in Vancouver Layton claimed he was being smeared in the final hours of a campaign just as opinion polls have his party poised to make a historic breakthrough.

“It’s unfortunate to see the smear campaign starting in these last few days of the campaign. Absolutely nothing wrong was done,” he said.

“There was no wrongdoing here, yet the smears start. And you know, this is why a lot of people get turned off politics and don’t even want to get involved,” he stated.

Layton did not address the allegations specifically but a lawyer for the New Democratic Party issued a stern warning about the reports.

“The facts are that Mr Layton had obtained a massage from a massage therapist, but had no knowledge whatsoever that the therapist’s location may have been used for illicit purposes,” Brian Iler said.

“Any statement or inference that Mr Layton’s actions or behaviour was other than the facts stated above would be without any factual basis, would clearly (be) made with malice, and ought not to be published,” Iler added.

Iler added that police told Layton he did nothing wrong but that the location was questionable. He said Layton gave police his name and address and nothing further happened. (ANI)