Paedophile rapist admitted crime just before lie test
9:00am Wednesday 21st April 2010 in News
A PAEDOPHILE confessed to raping and sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl as he was about to take a lie detector test.
David Court, who was found guilty of the offences by a jury at Bolton Crown Court yesterday, was confronted by the girl’s family and offered to take the test in January last year.
But as Don Cargill, the polygraph operator employed by her family to carry out the test, explained to him what was about to happen, he admitted that the girl’s claims were true. Court, aged 61, of Ruby Street, Bolton, denied the allegations when subsequently arrested by police and pleaded not guilty at court.
Iain Simkin, prosecuting, said Court, who is from the travelling community, would often meet the girl at social occasions.
Then in 1996, when she was 10, he invited her to help out with horses he kept in a field.
While at the field he sexually assaulted her.
“She was too frightened to move. She was choking, crying and unable to speak,”
said Mr Simkin.
“There was a sledge hammer near to where the attack took place and the defendant stated that if she ever told anybody about what had happened he would ‘wrap it round her head’.
“The defendant then employed a different tactic, telling the 10-year-old that what had happened was completely normal and that she shouldn’t concern herself about his behaviour.”
The court heard that on another occasion when the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was at his house, he raped her in his bedroom and afterwards reminded her of the sledge hammer.
The abuse only came to light 12 years later after the girl had told her boyfriend about the attacks.
It took a jury eight hours and 20 minutes to find Court guilty on both counts.
The case was adjourned for sentencing until June 1 to allow pre-sentence reports to be compiled.
