Rapist who threw victim's brother off cliff jailed

A paedophile who raped a girl and threw her brother off a 100ft cliff to "silence him" has been jailed for life.

Anthony Stocks tried to kill the primary school-aged boy at Ovingdean, near Brighton, in September 2022 after fearing he would be exposed as a child abuser.

Stocks claimed the boy, who survived the fall, plunged from the cliff after taking him there to see the view because it featured in the film Quadrophenia.

A jury at Oxford Crown Court found him guilty of attempted murder and sexual offences and he was told he would have to serve a minimum of 20 years.

Police said that after the girl confided in her brother, the youngster had done "everything to try and prevent the abuse carrying on".

Judge Nigel Daly said Stocks remained "utterly obsessed" with the girl and had "ruined the lives" of the two children.

He said the 54-year-old, previously of Goring in Oxfordshire, took the boy to London on a tour of football stadiums - but then to Brighton to kill him.

The boy landed on a bed of shingle and stones, a few feet from a concrete path that would have killed him instantly had he landed on that instead, the judge said.

Det Sgt Jemma Paterson, from Sussex Police, said she was "shocked" to find the boy had survived the fall on 24 September.

She described how he was screaming with pain as he was treated by paramedics at the foot of the 100ft (30.5m) cliff.

"His injuries were extensive," she said. "He was conscious and clearly in pain and those sounds will stay with me for the rest of my life."

She said a number of witnesses were also "traumatised" by what they had seen.

While Sussex Police investigated what happened in Ovingdean, Thames Valley Police discovered the boy's sister had been sexually abused by Stocks for three years.

The girl had blurted it out to her brother "all of it… in one big go", she said in a pre-recorded interview played during the trial.

Det Sgt Rachel Jackson, from the Thames Valley force, described the girl's ordeal as "most disturbing".

She said it was "one of the worst cases of child abuse" she and her team had ever investigated, adding that Stocks, a former extra in the Star Wars franchise, was "incredibly predatory".

Det Sgt Jackson said the girl's brother did "everything to try and prevent the abuse carrying on" and "tried to put himself in the way".

"Then, unfortunately, Mr Stocks took the decision to take him to the cliffs and push him off," she said.

"He had catastrophic injuries across his body, but he has made an amazing recovery and is doing really well."

Both siblings have been praised by police for their bravery - the girl for having the courage to tell her brother about the abuse, and the boy for trying to intervene to stop it.

He said the plot was "not a spur of the moment decision" and that he had visited a quarry in Chinnor, Oxfordshire, to formulate his plan to "get rid" of him.

"You knew of the cliffs at Brighton from watching the film Quadrophenia. You had made internet inquiries about trains to Brighton and made inquiries about the distance from Brighton seafront to the cliffs," the judge added.

But he said he had to take into account his low IQ of 54 and poor cognitive abilities in his sentencing.

Stocks attended a special school, which he left without any qualifications.

Defending, Martin Rutherford KC said Stocks knew his offending was wrong.

"Whether he has the skills to comprehend the depth or scale of his wrongdoing is a rather more moot point. The fact is that much of the trial process he struggled to understand,” the barrister added.

But Judge Daly told Stocks he was "dangerous" and remained a "significant risk" to girls and, if given the chance, would go on to commit further violent offences.

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