PHONE data of a man who allegedly threw a boy from a cliff to continue the abuse of an underage girl revealed he was calling taxis hours before the incident.
Anthony Stocks, of Iceni Close, Goring, is on trial at Oxford Crown Court accused of attempting to murder a 10-year-old boy after he tried to ‘intervene’ with Stocks allegedly assaulting an underage girl.
Reportedly, 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.
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The boy, who also cannot be named for legal reasons, tried to stop the assaults, resulting in Stocks allegedly trying to kill the boy by ‘throwing’ him off Ovingdean cliff in Brighton.
During the trial on Thursday (May 23), phone data revealed that in the early hours on September 22, 2022, Stocks had been calling taxi branches.
It was heard earlier in the trial that Stocks had taken the boy on a planned trip to London to see Chelsea's football stadium.
However, they then made an unscheduled trip to Brighton to ‘see the views’.
Phone data revealed that between about 4.30am and 7.10am, Stocks had made 51 phone calls from his mobile.
The calls were to twelve different numbers, eight of which were taxi numbers. Web searches were also found on his phone for taxi services.
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Stocks and the boy took a taxi to the train station in order to get to London. They then took a taxi from London to Brighton.
It is unknown if the calls in the early hours were enquiries for a taxi to Brighton.
The phone data also received text messages that Stocks had sent during the day to the girl, who had not attended the trip to London or Brighton.
One message read: “Hi [girl], are you ok? Me and [the boy] on the train. I miss you.” [sic]
Stocks also sent messages that the prosecution and police believe are asking the girl if she is ‘five lemons’ but they told the jury it is hard to tell what he means due to a potential typo.
The defendant 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.
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Stocks also faces one charge of attempted murder and an alternative charge of cruelty to a person under 16.
He denies all the counts against him.
The trial continues.
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