Verdict expected today in child rape trial

Thursday 05 March 2020

The case of a man accused of "humiliating and damaging" sexual abuse against a little girl, starting when he was a primary school child, is “so unusual it cannot be anything but the truth”, a jury was told yesterday.

The comments came from Crown Advocate Matthew Jowitt shortly before the group of ten women and two men retired to reach their verdict in the Royal Court trial of Paul Adrian Le Marquand.

The 53-year-old is facing a raft of "serious" charges including attempted rape, inappropriate touching and sodomy on an under-16 - all of which he denies.

The case opened on Tuesday, with the alleged victim breaking down in tears as she recounted the attacks she claimed Mr Le Marquand had carried out against her.

Yesterday, the defence opened their case by calling one of Mr Le Marquand’s family members to the stand. He described the defendant as “very polite and respectful” and a “very nice man all around”, adding that he had been “taken aback” when he had first heard of the accusations.  

He also said Mr Le Marquand’s relationship with his mother “wasn’t so good” and that she was disappointed with his career choices.

Pictured: The defence lawyer read three statements from Mr Le Marquand's friends.

Mr Le Marquand’s lawyer, Advocate Mark Boothman, then read three statements from his client’s friends. In those he was described as “always dependable and trustworthy” and “an extremely hard-working, polite, reliable and trustworthy person”.

One of the statements, written by a woman who first met Mr Le Marquand around the time the alleged offences took place, said he had “never once acted inappropriately towards her”. 

In his closing submissions, the Crown Advocate urged the jury to consider why the alleged victim would make up the accusations, suggesting it was an “unanswerable question” Mr Le Marquand had been “scrambling around to answer ever since he was first confronted with [them]."

He then went on to say that Mr Le Marquand hadn’t been able to suggest “a motive that bears scrutiny” and had been telling “half-truths” in hope of making the allegations go away.

Pictured: Crown Advocate Matthew Jowitt is leading the prosecution.

The Crown Advocate also reminded the jury the woman had mentioned the abuse to one of her friends a couple of years after it had ended. “Why would you harbour those false allegations for several decades … all the way through this court and trial?” the Crown Advocate said.  

He also highlighted “curious details” in the woman’s testimony, some of which “so unusual it cannot be anything but the truth."

Crown Advocate Jowitt described the abuse as “humiliating and damaging” to the woman, whom he said had been “all emotion and grief”.

Advocate Boothman then addressed the jury, reminding them that Mr Le Marquand had nothing to prove in the case, not even why the woman would make the allegations up.

He told the jury they simply could not be sure of his client’s guilt, as the case was “fundamentally one person’s word against another."

He suggested the woman might have been “incentivised to lie by the promise of later reward”, citing a civil claim or compensation claim as examples of such reward.

Pictured: Advocate Boothman told the jury they could not be sure his client had been above 10, the age of criminal responsibility, at the time of the alleged offences.

The defence lawyer told the jury that even though Mr Le Marquand denied the allegations, the question of whether he had reached the age of criminal responsibility at the time of the alleged offending was relevant.

“You must be sure he was 10 years old or above at the time these offences took place,” he said, adding later on the jury couldn’t be sure he was younger than that.

He suggested at multiple times during his speech that the woman’s evidence was not “believable”, later asking: “How can you be sure she is telling the truth?”

By contrast, he described Mr Le Marquand’s answers to the police as an “honest and truthful account”. “All he is saying is that he hadn’t committed [the offences].” 

Concluding his speech, Advocate Boothman said he hoped the jury would find Mr Le Marquand not guilty on all counts. 

The jury retired in early afternoon following directions from the Bailiff, Tim Le Cocq.

They are expected to deliver a verdict today.