A jury is due to retire soon in the trial of Anthony Stocks - a man accused of 'throwing' a young boy from a 100ft cliff.
Stocks, of Iceni Close, Goring-on-Thams in Oxfordshire, is on trial at Oxford Crown Court accused of attempting to murder a ten-year-old boy by pushing him off a cliff at Ovingdean, Brighton, after he tried to ‘intervene’ with Stocks who was allegedly assaulting an underage girl.
The court heard the 54-year-old wanted to ‘marry’ the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and had sexually assaulted her on several occasions in the early 2020s.
The boy, who also cannot be named, tried to stop the alleged assaults, resulting in Stocks reportedly trying to kill the boy on one occasion and contemplating it on a second.
Stocks has been charged with four counts of sexual assault of a child under 13, one charge of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, and one count of rape of a child.
Stocks also faces one charge of attempted murder and an alternative charge of cruelty to a person under 16.
Judge Nigel Daly has been summarising the facts of the case to the jury today after the case started two weeks ago.
Soon after, the jury will retire to consider their verdicts.
It is unknown how long they will take with their deliberations.
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