Jurors in Oxford 'stick sex assault' trial hear from alleged victims

Barry Walton, 61 of Saunders Road, Oxford, is accused of five counts of sexual assault of a girl under-13 at Spindleberry Nature Park in Blackbird Leys.

Walton, of Saunders Road, denies five counts of sexual assault of a child under-13 by touching.

In a pre-recorded video cross-examination played to jurors on Wednesday (April 12), the older of Walton’s alleged victims was told by defence counsel Paul Mason that his client said he had ‘never given you £50’.

“Are you sure he gave you £50?” the barrister asked.

“Yes,” she replied.

READ MORE: Prosecution opens case in woodland sex assault trial 

Prosecutors claim Walton molested the older girl on a number of occasions; pulling down her trousers, touching her sexually with his hand and ‘a stick’ and telling her to urinate.

The younger girl was allegedly told to sit on the defendant’s lap in a separate incident.

Both girls were interviewed by specialist detectives after the allegations came to light in 2020. They were cross-examined by Walton’s barrister last year in a special hearing known as a ‘section 28’.

The children, who were primary school age when they were allegedly assaulted, both maintained the accounts they gave to the police.

The older girls said she was sure that ‘Barry’ gave her money so she ‘wouldn’t say anything about what happened in the park’.

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She was sure that the man had told her to pull down her trousers, that if she did not do it herself then he would take them down, and that Walton had ‘poked’ her private parts with a stick.

Mr Mason, defending, made it clear to the complainant that the defendant said he had ‘never’ done the things she alleged.

Under questioning, the younger girl said she was sure ‘Barry’ told her she could not go home when he took her to a park in Blackbird Leys.

The trial continues.