This is the shocking moment police arrest a man who tried to throw a child over a 100ft cliff after he was caught sexually abusing a young girl.
Anthony Stocks, 54, has been found guilty of the attempted murder of a ten-year-old boy after grooming his young sister and making her dependent on him while he worked as an extra on several films.
A panel of 12 jurors at Oxford Crown Court today unanimously found Stocks, of Goring, Reading, guilty of all eight charges, including attempted murder, rape and assault.
Footage shows the moment he was arrested by police at his home, where an officer read out the long list of crimes he has committed.
The video then shows Stocks being interviewed by police after the boy fell, which he says he slipped of his own accord. You also see him telling the police that he didn’t want the boy to fall off the cliff.
Anthony Stocks, 54, has been found guilty of the attempted murder of a ten-year-old boy after grooming his young sister
This is when the police arrive at Stocks and explain why they are arresting him
The court heard how the young girl confided in the boy, who both cannot be named for legal reasons, after the assaults and said she was ‘scared’. Stocks then became aware that the boy was aware of the attacks and intended to ‘disrupt’ them.
In September 2022, Stocks took the boy to Ovingdean, Sussex, after previously considering pushing him off a cliff near a quarry just weeks earlier.
A witness states that they saw a “little creature fall as if thrown off the cliff,” followed by “a scream,” but the boy says he could not remember whether he was pushed or fell.
He was then flown to St George’s Hospital in London, where it was discovered that he had several fractures to his head and arm, a deformity to his neck and a laceration to his spleen and kidney.
When interviewed by police, the girl said Stocks admitted he wanted to push the boy off the cliff “because he wanted to get rid of him.”
Today jurors heard that the 10-year-old schoolboy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, ‘miraculously’ survived the 30 meter fall after landing on the concrete catwalk at the bottom of the cliffs.
Prosecutors alleged that the twice-married defendant decided to take the boy on a trip to London to see Chelsea’s football stadium, before later pushing him off a cliff in Brighton because the boy had tried to prevent Stocks from killing his underage sister would bother.
After spending several months in the hospital, the boy told police that he “knew everything” about the sexual abuse his underage sister allegedly suffered at the hands of Stocks, after the girl confided to him that Stocks had asked her to have sex with him ‘pretty much. every day.’
The boy began to “interfere” and stay with his sister when the abuser was around in an attempt to prevent the abuse – which “really annoyed” Stocks, jurors heard.
In his interview with police, the boy described becoming suspicious of Stocks’ behavior towards his sister after seeing him kiss the girl ‘on the lips’ before they ‘went behind the bush’ in a park where the children were playing were playing.
In a police interview, Stocks is seen shaking his head when asked if he wants the boy to fall off the cliff
Another clip shows Stocks saying he tried to tell the boy to stay away from the edge of the wall
The boy said, “Every time my sister went somewhere, he (Stocks) followed. Then she told me that he asked her to have sex with him. It happened almost every day.
‘I felt very sad for her. I didn’t know what to do at that moment. I don’t think he (Stocks) knew that I knew everything. But he was disappointed and kept sighing every time I was there because nothing would happen.”
The boy’s sister, who gave live evidence during the trial, said she was ‘scared’ of Stocks and did not speak to anyone about the alleged sexual abuse she suffered – except her little brother.
When asked why she told her brother, the girl replied, “So he would help me.”
The girl added that Stocks had approached her a few nights before the trip to Chelsea Stadium and told her, “I’m going to push him off a cliff.” I want to get rid of him so we can be together.’
The court heard the girl had tried to warn her brother not to go with Stocks – to no avail as the boy was a keen Chelsea fan and had ‘always wanted’ to see the stadium.
When police arrested Stocks, he denied ever touching the girl and claimed the boy’s fall was an accident.
He told the jury last week that he was a film fan and wanted to take the boy to the cliff edge in Ovingdean to “see where they filmed Quadrophenia” – a 1979 British drama film based on the 1973 rock opera of the same name by The Who.
After sentencing, Stocks’ barrister Martin Rutherford told Judge Nigel Daly there was no evidence the suspect suffered from any form of mental illness.
Stocks has been remanded in custody and will appear again at Oxford District Court for sentencing at the end of July.
Judge Daly said: “These are very serious offences. I will have to take into account the dangerousness in the light of the charges, especially in view of the attempted murder motive in the first six charges of rape and sexual assault of a young girl.
‘This will take some time. I want to look at a lot of things regarding his background. In any case, a long prison sentence will follow.’
Stocks was found guilty of four counts of sexual assault of a child under 13 and one count of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity.
He was also found guilty of at least three counts of rape of a child and attempted murder, but denied all charges.
