Paedophile Anthony Stocks, who raped girls and threw boys off a 30-metre cliff in Brighton, has been sentenced to prison

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A paedophile who pushed a boy off a 30-metre cliff to prevent him from admitting he had raped a young girl has been sentenced to prison.

Anthony Stocks, 54, launched a calculated plan to kill the 10-year-old boy in September 2022 by taking him to a set of cliffs in Ovingdean, leaving his victim with lifelong injuries.

The fall was initially thought to be an accident, but an investigation revealed that Stocks’ behavior was intended to cover up three years of cruel child abuse.

While living at an address in East Oxfordshire between 2019 and 2022, he repeatedly raped and sexually abused a young girl on multiple occasions.

After confiding in the young boy who made every effort to stop Stocks from committing crimes, he hatched his plan to murder the boy.

He had previously taken him to a quarry but changed his mind and later that year decided to take the boy to Chelsea Football Club and then to the cliff top in Ovingdean. Stocks had also told his female victim that he planned to push the boy, who suffered several serious injuries.

Rescue workers flew the boy by helicopter to St. George’s Hospital in London, where he suffered several broken bones and a spleen and kidney injury.

At the trial, it was found that the boy was fortunate to have survived and had no memory of the fall, but he had suffered lifelong injuries.

Stocks, formerly of Goring-on-Thames, was unanimously convicted of attempted murder, rape, sexual abuse of a child under 13 and inducing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual conduct.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 19.5 years.

Detective Sergeant Rachel Jackson, of Thames Valley Police’s Child Abuse Investigation Unit, said: “I am delighted that Stocks has today been sentenced to a very significant sentence for his cruel and vicious offences against two young children.

“Stocks is an extremely dangerous individual who only thinks about himself and protects himself from prosecution by taking the boy out of the equation.

“He never showed any remorse throughout the entire investigation.

“I would like to thank both victims for their incredible courage and determination in helping us bring Stocks to justice.

“They showed enormous maturity and clarity both in their interrogations with the police and in court regarding what had happened to them.

“It is thanks to this truly inspiring courage that Stocks has now been brought to justice and will now spend a long time in prison, where he deserves to be.

“In my years of investigating child abuse, this was one of the worst cases I have dealt with and the impact it has had on both the victims and all the officers and staff who have investigated it cannot be underestimated.”