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A jury has found a man in his 50s not guilty of committing two sexual assaults on a little girl when he himself was a child, but failed to reach a verdict on eight other charges.
Paul Le Marquand, who maintained his innocence throughout the two-day trial, was facing ten charges relating to a string of alleged sexual abuse.
Some of the charges, dated back to when he was in primary school.
This afternoon, he was found not guilty of two counts and discharged of another eight against him after the jury of ten women and two men couldn't agree on a verdict following seven hours of deliberation.
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.
Pictured: The defence lawyer challenged the alleged victim's version of events in court.
Her version of events was challenged by the defence lawyer, Advocate Mark Boothman, who suggested the events had not taken place and that the woman had “manipulated stories to make up allegations of indecent assault”.
He also suggested Mr Le Marquand could have been younger than what the woman claimed - and potentially not at the age of criminal responsibility, 10 - at the time of the alleged offences.
While Mr Le Marquand didn’t give evidence during the trial, the jury heard the transcript of his first interview with the police, in which he described learning of the allegations as “a little bit of a shock”.
“It wasn’t me, it absolutely wasn’t me,” he repeated, adding he had no idea why the woman would say he had assaulted her when they were both children.
In his closing speech, Crown Advocate Matthew Jowitt urged the jury to consider why the alleged victim would make up the accusations, suggesting it was an “unanswerable question”.
He also highlighted “curious details” in the woman’s testimony, some of which “so unusual it cannot be anything but the truth".
Pictured: Crown Advocate Matthew Jowitt was leading the prosecution.
Advocate Boothman then 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".
The defence lawyer also 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 wasn’t younger than that at the time.
Following directions from the Bailiff, Tim Le Cocq, the jury retired in early afternoon on Wednesday. After nearly seven hours of deliberation, they were brought back to court, where the foreman indicated they had only reached a verdict on two of the 10 counts - one of them unanimous.
As the foreman indicated, it was unlikely the jury would agree on a verdict for the remaining counts, even if they were given more time, the Bailiff discharged the jury.
He also discharged Mr Le Marquand in respect of the eight charges.
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