20/10/2006

Man found guilty of 'bath snatch' rape

A man has been found guilty of snatching a six-year-old girl from her bath and raping her before leaving her freezing in an alley.

Peter Voisey, 35, of Blyth, Northumberland, has been convicted of abduction, rape and sexual assault.

The attack took place last December, when Voisey broke into the girl’s ground-floor flat in Willington Quay, North Tynside.

The jury at Newcastle Crown Court heard how he put his hand over her mouth, and told her she would never see her family again if she made a noise, then subjected her to a horrific ordeal in his red Vauxhall Astra car.

The young girl was then found naked and crying in an alleyway 300 metres from her home.

Voisey had previously been convicted of molesting a 12-year-old girl in the changing rooms of a leisure centre in Macclesfield, Cheshire, in 2001.

This evidence was read to the jury, after the prosecution appealed for bad character evidence to be included under the 2003 Criminal Justice Act.

DNA evidence, a footprint match and mobile phone evidence were all presented to the jury, which helped lead to the conviction and they heard he had burned his clothes in his back garden and had his car destroyed.

The mother of the girl praised all those involved in the investigation, and in a statement outside the court, said: “My little girl was in the bath in her home within earshot of everyone else in the flat, the back door was shut and I’d only just left the bathroom to go to another room when she was snatched.”

She described the harrowing experience as “every mother’s nightmare” and continued:

“You wouldn’t think you would have to lock all your doors this early in the evening to protect your children from anyone entering your home uninvited.”

Voisey will be sentenced on 1 December.

(JM)

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