Man who pushed boy off cliff for trying to stop him raping sister facing jail

A paedophile who threw a 10-year-old boy off a 100ft cliff after the 
youngster tried to stop him raping his sister is facing years behind bars.

Anthony Stocks, 54, told the 12-year-old girl he was sexually abusing that 
wanted to ‘get rid of [the boy] so we can be together’, jurors at Oxford 
Crown Court heard.

So, he lured the young Chelsea fan out with a trip to London to see 
Stamford Bridge football stadium before taking him down to the seaside in 
Brighton on September 24, 2022.

Day trippers in later told police how they saw the pair walking near the 
cliff edge in Ovingdean before hearing a shriek and seeing a small shape 
plummet to the concrete walkway below.

Prosecutor Zoe Johnson said: ‘Miraculously he did not die but was very 
seriously injured and had to be airlifted to hospital in London.
‘Initially, it was believed that what had happened to him was a dreadful 
accident – but investigations revealed a different and much darker 
picture.’

Speaking to detectives after spending months in hospital, the boy revealed 
he ‘knew everything’ about his sister’s ordeal at Stocks’s hands.

In his interview, he described growing suspicious of Stocks’s behaviour 
after seeing him kiss the girl ‘on the lips’ before they ‘went behind the 
bush’ in a park where children were playing.

The boy said: ‘Every time my sister went somewhere, he would follow.

‘Then she told me that he asked her to have sex with him. It was happening 
pretty much every day.

‘I felt very sad for her. I didn’t know what to do at the time.

‘I don’t think he knew that I knew everything. But he was disappointed, 
and he kept sighing every time I was there – because nothing would 
happen.’

Jurors heard Stocks previously took the boy to a quarry in Oxfordshire 
where he ‘contemplated’ pushing the boy off cliffs there before changing 
his mind.

The girl tried in vain to warn her brother not to be alone with her 
abuser.

She said the older man had told her a few days before the near fatal 
attack: ‘I’m going to push him off a cliff. I want to get rid of him so we 
can be together.’

The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told police: ‘I told him 
not to go to London because I knew that he (Stocks) was going to push him 
off a cliff.

‘But he (the brother) said: “No, I want to go to London”.’

Stocks, of Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, was found guilty of attempted 
murder, four counts of sexually assaulting a girl under 13, causing a girl 
under 13 to engage in sexual activity and rape of a girl under 13.

Judge Nigel Daly remanded him in custody until sentencing at the end of 
July.

Detective Sergeant Rachel Jackson said: ‘This is without a doubt one of 
the worst cases of child abuse that I have investigated.

‘These were absolutely horrific and evil offences committed by Anthony 
Stocks.

‘Over a period of around three years, Stocks had subjected the girl to 
sexual abuse and rape, and when the boy became aware of what was 
happening, Stocks hatched his evil plan to kill him.’

She added: ‘Stocks had intended to kill the boy to get him out of the way 
so he could continue his offending against the girl. This failed, and 
Stocks was arrested.

‘He is a very dangerous individual, who had no thought about anybody but 
himself, to protect himself from prosecution by removing the boy from the 
equation.

‘He has not shown any remorse throughout the course of this investigation.

‘I would like to praise both victims for their unbelievable courage and 
resolve that helped us to bring Stocks to justice.’

https://metro.co.uk/news/