After trying to stop Anthony Stocks, 54, from Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, raping his sister, a court has heard her 10-year-old brother was thrown 100 feet over a cliff yet survived.
Anthony Stocks attempted to kill the boy so he would not be further interrupted whilst raping the boy’s sister.
What the court described as a “small shape fall as if thrown from the cliff” was seen by a witness. Mr. Stocks disputes allegations of attempted murder and rape of a minor less than thirteen years old.
For legal reasons, Oxford Crown Court’s jurors heard Mr Anthony Stocks planned to kill the lad, who cannot be identified.
According to The Times, prosecution Zoe Johnson says to the court: “The defendant attempted to murder him by pushing him off the cliff.”
She added Mr Anthony Stocks might have quickly changed his mind about what he had done, but just then, he shoved the victim, “it was the climax of a plan to get the boy out of the way so he could no more interfere”.
The jury heard Mr Anthony Stocks brought the lad to Brighton’s cliff tops without his mother’s knowledge.
Ms Johnson told the jury the lad dropped 100 feet from the cliff edge into the concrete under a walk-through. The court heard the lad had several fractures, severe lacerations to his scalp, chest abrasions and left shoulder damage.
He was taken to St George’s Hospital, where medics had to revive him before the child fell into a medical coma.
Walking with a buddy towards a stairway near the cliff, Eyewitness Anthony Boulding reported seeing the youngster and defendant strolling on a grass edge above.
Ms Johnson told the court that the lad seemed to be having fun, and his hands were outstretched as though he was trying to balance.
According to The Times, Mr Anthony Stocks was apparently behind the lad and matched his tempo. According to the prosecution, Mr Boulding heard a commotion and glanced up and saw someone on the other side of the fence.
A second figure stood behind the lad, and Mr Boulding remarked that shouts indicated a child was “mucking around”. According to The Times, the eyewitness observed a form fall as though thrown and then heard a shriek.
The court heard that Mr Boulding and his buddy joined a crowd around the youngster in a “bad state” but still alive. Mr Anthony Stocks joined onlookers helping the youngster, the court heard.
A second witness, Emma Betts, claimed Mr Anthony Stocks advised the lad not to venture close to the edge. Jurors also saw him seated, pulling out his phone and rolling a cigarette.
“I’m not sexually attracted to children and have not tried to have or instigated sexual activity with children,” a police statement taken on behalf of Mr Anthony Stocks claimed The Times quotes.
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