Man accused of sex with girl walks free

7:24pm Thursday 9th October 2008

A JURY has failed to decide whether a man had sex with a 14-year-old girl.

On Wednesday after four hours the jury at Oxford Crown Court cleared him of two of the three charges he faced.

But after over seven hours deliberating the eight men and four women could not come to a majority verdict and Judge Julian Hall decided to discharge them.

Now Timothy Ash, of Bourton, near Swindon, must wait to see whether the Crown Prosecution Service will retry him on whether he had sex with the 14-year-old.

He had denied three counts of sexual activity with a child.

The jury returned after six hours with no unanimous verdict and Judge Hall gave them the opportunity to try and get a 10 to two majority.

He said: “In an ideal world all verdicts would be unanimous, but we all know the world’s not a perfect place.”

But it soon became clear when the court convened for a second time that the jury could not agree.

“You have been out to consider your verdicts for seven hours for a case that lasted two days,” said Judge Hall.

“If I will give you more time do you think there’s a chance of you agreeing? I can see you shaking your heads.”

The jury was then discharged and by Wednesday the Crown Prosecution Service must decide whether they can bring a retrial or drop the case against Ash.

Ash claimed he had been staying at a hotel on ‘Norwich seafront’ at the time the teenager alleged they had sex at her home.

Judge Hall, addressing the jury, added: “Thank you very much for your attention to the case, I’m not sure what will happen to the charges that you could not agree on.”

On Wednesday, Ash was found not guilty of two charges of committing sex acts with a child while in his van, parked near the White Horse Hill, in Uffington, last Christmas Eve.

His mother Maureen Belcher said before the court that she was with him the entire evening in question at the Bourton Men’s Club where they live.

Though, in an interview with police, he had earlier admitted committing sex acts with the girl, who is now 15 and with whom he exchanged 3,000 messages,when giving evidence in court Ash denied sexually touching her.

He was also accused of having sex with the girl at her home while her parents were away on holiday.

But Ash provided the court with the last-minute Norwich alibi.

Sam Mainds, prosecuting, had argued that there was no evidence to back up these claims and questioned why Ash had not mentioned this visit before.

Although Francis Chamberlain, defending, accepted his client had wasted police time and might have been flattered by the girl’s attentions he said this did not mean they had had sex.