Man 'gave details of bath-snatch'

12 April 2012

A man accused of snatching a six-year-old from her bath and raping her told a friend's partner graphic details of the sex attack which were never made public, a court has heard.

Peter Voisey, also known as Smith, a 37-year-old from Blyth, Northumberland, denies abduction, rape and sexual assault in North Tyneside on December 27 last year.

Amy Brown told Newcastle Crown Court that Voisey, a friend of her partner Andy Stronach, had told her intimate details of the girl's ordeal. He then made a gesture, showing how the assault had happened, Ms Brown told the court.

James Goss QC, prosecuting, told the jury on the first day of the trial that this detail had not been made public. "How did he know if he wasn't responsible for the offences?" he asked during his opening speech.

Ms Brown, who wept as she gave evidence, said Voisey told her about the girl's abduction in a conversation which happened about a week earlier, in early January.

She had been unaware of the event, despite it receiving national publicity. She told the court: "Peter visited one night and asked if I had heard about the abduction of the girl from her bath. He had seen it on the news.

"He explained she had been in the bathroom and the bathroom was near the back door. I asked 'Didn't the child make a noise?' He said someone had put his hand over her mouth so people couldn't hear her make a noise."

Franz Muller QC, defending, said his client was merely repeating something that he had been told about the attack when he was talking to her about the graphic detail. "What he was telling you was information, he was not suggesting that he had done this," Mr Muller said. But Ms Brown insisted she remembered the conversation correctly.

The mother of two daughters, aged two and seven, agreed Voisey had continued to be a welcome guest at her family home after this conversation.

Earlier, the jury was shown mobile phone records which were used to plot the defendant's movements. Voisey initially told police he was visiting Mr Stronach and another friend in Blyth when the girl was snatched, but the jury heard how his mobile phone was in the North Tyneside area around the time she was abducted.

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