Man not guilty of Christmas sex crime
11:52am Thursday 9th October 2008
A man accused of being a paedophile has been cleared of two of the three charges against him.
A jury will today continue to deliberate whether he had sex with a 14-year-old girl he exchanged more than 3,000 text messages with.
Timothy Ash, of Bourton, near Swindon, denied three counts of sexual activity with a child.
After four hours of deliberation, the jury at Oxford Crown Court found Ash not guilty of counts one and two, relating to an alleged incident last Christmas Eve.
Builder Ash was accused of twice committing sex acts with a 14-year-old girl in the front seat of his van, parked near the White Horse Hill, in Uffington.
When interviewed by police, Ash admitted committing two sex acts with the girl, but said he thought the offences had taken place on another date around the Christmas period.
In court he denied sexually touching the girl, now 15.
His mother, Maureen Belcher, gave evidence to the court that Ash was with her at the Bourton Men's Club, where they live, during the entire evening.
The eight men and four women on the jury will return to the court this morning to continue their deliberations about the third offence.
He is accused of having sex with the girl at her home in mid January, while her parents were away.
In his evidence Ash claimed he had been staying at an unnamed seafront hotel in Norwich at the time of the final offence.
Sam Mainds, prosecuting, told the jury in his closing argument: “You don’t need a lecture from me about young people being vulnerable and our need to protect them.
“We have heard no more witnesses and he has absolutely no one to back up that claim he was in Norwich.
“Why did he not mention his alibi at the interview stage?”
Francis Chamberlain, defending, aid: “You can call Mr Ash a time waster. He wasted police time making false statements. Clearly he has lied at some stage.
“There were vast numbers of texts between him and a young girl. Perhaps Mr Ash was flattered. Perhaps he was titillated.
“But that doesn’t mean it resulted in sex.”
Summing up the case Judge Julian Hall said: “She was 14 and he knew that.
“That they got to know each other at the club there is no dispute.
“It was only after she was taken to the doctors that she told her mother she had had sex and who it was with.
“He confessed having sexual contact with her.
“His explanation was he honestly thought it would give her time to tell the truth.
“He says nothing happened between them of a sexual nature. That’s his case.
“I do not know if Mr Mainds is right in saying that Norwich is 40 miles from the sea. But I know it is not on the coast.”
The trial continues