A video of the moment a paedophile lied to officers about pushing a 10-year-old boy off Ovingdean cliffs has been released by police.
Anthony Stocks, 54, was found guilty of attempted murder this week. His victim had been trying to stop Stocks from raping and sexually assaulting his underage sister.
Today, Thames Valley Police released footage of Stocks telling police the boy had been running towards the cliffs before he fell.
Standing at the bottom of the cliffs, he told officers: “So he started running and I said ‘Don’t go near that cliff.’
“And then he just went over. He was running.”
Stocks was found guilty by unanimous jury verdict of four counts of sexual assault of a child under 13 and one count each of causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, rape and attempted murder.
The joint investigation between Thames Valley Police and Sussex Police found that Stocks had hatched a plan to kill the young boy who had tried to stop him from sexually abusing his under-age sister.
Stocks had previously taken the boy to a quarry in Oxfordshire with a plan to push him off the edge, but he changed his mind.
However, on Saturday 24 September 2022, Stocks took the child to a set of cliffs at Ovingdean, near Brighton, where he carried out his plan, pushing the boy from the cliff edge.
The boy fell around 100ft to the concrete underwalk below. He sustained extensive serious injuries but miraculously, survived.
Initially, the boy’s fall was thought to be accidental but, following the launch of an investigation, a much darker reason for the fall became apparent.
Stocks, formerly of Iceni Close, Goring-on-Thames, was arrested on Thursday 23 November 2023 on suspicion of attempted murder, rape and other sexual offences and was charged on the same day.
Over a period of three years from 2019 to 2022, Stocks was staying at an address in east Oxfordshire. While there, he subjected a girl to rape and several sexual assaults.
The boy tried to intervene to stop Stocks continuing his abuse and it was then that Stocks hatched his sordid plan to kill the boy.
The girl had told her brother about the offending and he put himself in the way of Stocks to try to stop the incidents from occurring.
Stocks made concerted efforts to stop this and took the boy to a quarry nearby in east Oxfordshire with a thought of pushing him from the cliff edge.
Although he did not do this at that time, later in the same year, Stocks took the boy to see Chelsea Football Club before heading to Brighton and the cliff side at Ovingdean.
He had told his female victim he was planning to push him from the cliff.
The boy was pushed from the cliff, falling 100ft to the ground, where he sustained multiple severe injuries. He still suffers from ongoing issues as a result of the fall but has otherwise made a miraculous recovery.
Stocks is due to be sentenced at a later date yet to be confirmed.
