Jury retires to consider verdict on child sex abuse trial

Wednesday 20 March 2019

A jury of eight women and four men has retired to consider their verdict in the Royal Court trial of a 63-year-old man accused of abusing a girl under 10 before plying her with gifts 30 years ago.

Robert George Carrel is denying all four counts of sexual misconduct against him – three of procuring an act of gross indecency and one indecent assault.

Before they retired, the jury heard from Royal Court Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith who summed up the evidence for them and gave directions on matters of law.

The Jury heard that the woman said Mr Carrel would take her to his flat when she was a young girl and ask her to touch him before taking her to the shops to buy her treats - a pattern he repeated on more than one occasion.

They also heard from another woman who spoke of incidents alleged to have taken place between her and the defendant when Mr Carrel was living in the UK for which Mr Carrel was not charged or prosecuted.

Pictured: Advocate James Bell is defending Mr Carrel.

Yesterday, the Jury heard from Advocate James Bell who presented the defence case. He said the present allegations were “untrue”, but that, “unfortunately for him” Mr Carrel was “a good person to wrongly accuse".

He told the Jury the complainant had “numerous” chances to report abuse, but “coincidentally” hadn’t done so until 2016 – just after Mr Carrel had left jail – adding that she “knew” about previous allegations against him before making her own report to Police. 

“Is it a coincidence or… an affront to common sense?” Advocate Bell questioned.

The defence lawyer described the alleged victim as “at best confused as to where she had been taken” as a child, adding that she had not given a "compelling" account as to how Mr Carrel would have gotten away with abusing her in a house with other people.

Advocate Bell later stated that the woman’s evidence “didn’t sit” with her mother’s.

“Despite her mother’s desire to support and back her up, she hasn’t provided any corroboration. She says she didn’t see any signs of concern. The low value gifts - she thought there was nothing unusual about that, she said it was what people do.”

Pictured: The jury is expected to give their verdict later today.

Referring to the testimony from another woman alleging that Mr Carrel made her watch pornographic films and asked her to mimic what was happening on screen when she was a child, Advocate Bell said it differed from that of the complainant in this case.

He urged the jury not to place “undue reliance” on the woman, saying she had been used “to bolster a weak case”.

He also asked the jury to consider the effect of 30 years of delay, which he said meant evidence had been lost and caused prejudice to Mr Carrel by making it harder for him to “simply deny” the allegations.  

 “Suspicions are not enough,” the Advocate concluded his address. “The verdict should be one of ‘not guilty’…  If there’s any doubt in your mind, the defendant is entitled to the benefit of that doubt.”

The Royal Court Commissioner urged the jury to make a decision based on the evidence they had heard and to put aside any feelings they might have about such offences.