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Man threw heroic boy, 10, over cliff after trying to ‘stop him from raping his sister’

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A man threw a 10-year-old boy off a cliff after the child tried to stop him from raping his sister, a court heard.

54-year-old Anthony Stocks is said to have taken the child from London to Brighton without his mother’s knowledge and then pushed her over the edge of a 30 meter deep abyss in front of horrified onlookers.

Witnesses described hearing a “scream” and seeing a “small figure” fall down the side of the Ovingdean cliff before the child hit the concrete below. Miraculously, the ten-year-old survived the fall.

Jurors at Oxford Crown Court heard the incident, which occurred in 2020, was initially treated as a “horrific accident” before investigators revealed a “different and much darker picture”.

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Witnesses recall Stocks approaching the seriously injured boy and saying, “I told him not to go near the edge,” before sitting down and rolling a cigarette

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Oxford Crown Court

Jurors at Oxford Crown Court heard the man was “grooming” the boy’s sister.

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Stocks was on trial for the attempted murder of the boy and the rape of a girl under 13. He denies all allegations.

Prosecutor Zoe Johnson KC told jurors that Stocks “spoiled” the boy’s sister and claimed to his psychiatrist that they were “going to get married.”

Johnson told the court: “The defendant forced a girl under the age of 13 to have sexual contact with him even though he knew it was wrong. The boy had tried to intervene.

“Unbeknownst to the boy’s mother, the defendant then took him to Brighton and in particular to the cliffs.”

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An eyewitness said he saw the boy and man making their way to the cliff stairs and claimed that it looked like the child was having fun.

“That afternoon the boy fell 30 meters from the cliff onto the concrete beneath the walkway. “The defendant attempted to murder him by pushing him off the cliff,” Johnson continued.

“The defendant may have immediately regretted what he had done – but the moment he pushed the victim it was the culmination of a plan to get the boy out of the way so he could no longer interfere.”

Johnson said Stocks did not flee the scene, but instead joined the public in coming to the boy’s aid.

Emma Betts, another eyewitness, remembers Stocks approaching the seriously injured boy and saying, “I told him not to go near the edge,” before sitting down and rolling a cigarette.

Ovingdean Cliff

The court heard Stocks did not flee the scene but instead joined members of the public who came to the boy’s aid

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Although the boy did not die, he suffered serious injuries, including cuts to his scalp, abrasions to his chest, several broken bones and a deformed shoulder. He was flown by helicopter to hospital, where he was placed in an induced coma for three weeks.

Due to the “extremely high impact trauma” he had no memory of the fall itself, the court heard.

Stocks was arrested on May 12, 2023 on suspicion of sexual conduct with a child under 13 and rape of a child under 13.

He was subsequently arrested again on November 23, 2023 on suspicion of attempted murder.

A police statement read out on behalf of the defendant said: “I am not sexually attracted to children and have not attempted or instigated sexual activity with children.”

The process continues.

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