Oct 2006

Paedophile ‘under supervision’ when he raped girl, 6

A serial paedophile who raped a six-year-old after snatching her from her bath was under supervision as a convicted sex offender at the time.

Peter Voisey, who was found guilty of the attack today, sneaked in through the back door of his victim’s home and drove off with her, stopping twice to carry out separate serious sexual assaults, before dumping her 15 minutes later.

A review will now be held as to how the 35-year-old was monitored following his release from a two-year jail sentence imposed for an indecent assault on a vulnerable 12-year-old at a swimming pool in Macclesfield, Cheshire, in 2001.

Judge David Hodson warned the defendant he faces a very lengthy jail term when he is sentenced on December 1, after the jury at Newcastle Crown Court returned unanimous guilty verdicts on counts of abduction, rape and sexual assault.

He said: “You must expect to receive a sentence either of life imprisonment or an indefinite sentence for public protection.

“The purpose of the adjournment is so that the court can have a proper assessment of the risk you pose to the public at large.” The victim’s family, from North Tyneside, wept in the public gallery as the tension at the end of the three-week trial was replaced by relief.

Behind the glass dock, Voisey, also known as Smith, of Blyth, Northumberland, began to cry and shake his head. He was remanded in custody and led away.

As a sex offender, he was subject of Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (Mappa) following his release from prison for the Macclesfield offence.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: “We express our sympathy to the victim and her family. This is clearly an appalling offence.

“A multi-agency internal review of the case is being commissioned by the strategic management board of Mappa.”

After conviction, Det Chief Insp Jim Napier who led the case, said he was “satisfied” that Voisey was appropriately managed.

Mr Napier said the fact he was on the sex offender register made him a priority to interview.

Voisey snatched the girl from her ground-floor flat, and drove her off in his red dilapidated Vauxhall Astra.

Meanwhile, her mother frantically searched the house, then dialled 999, when she realised her daughter had vanished.

Soon after police received another call from local resident June Brown whose husband Geoffrey had heard a girl crying in the back lane and found the child naked and bleeding.

She was swabbed and tiny amounts of DNA were recovered, which though too small to provide a full profile, provided a partial match to Voisey.

A footprint found in the bathroom flat also matched his Diadora trainer.

Mobile phone mast analysis proved his handset was in the North Tyneside area, and not at his home in Blyth, at the time of the offence.

His alibis, firstly that he was away from the area, then later that he was buying cannabis in North Tyneside, crumbled.

The prosecution successfully applied for bad character evidence to be put before the jury, who were told of the swimming pool offence.

The court also heard he boasted about groping a woman during a break-in as she slept on a settee, and laid out clothes on the bed of another of his burglary victims alongside a sex toy.

Life-long friend Keith French told the court Voisey had confided he wanted to “do something” to a child as they drove past a mother with two youngsters.

And the jury heard he wrote in his diary on the day of the abduction: “Phew, it’s over. Chill now.”

Outside court, the abduction and rape was described by the girl’s parent as “every mother’s nightmare”.

She said: “My little girl was in the bath in her own 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.”

Mr Napier painted a damning picture of the man his team had helped convict.

“There is no doubt that Voisey is a serial sexual predator who preys on young and vulnerable children,” the detective said.

“He is also a convicted burglar and the investigation revealed that he would regularly break into people’s homes by stealth.

“It’s my personal view that he was out and about that night looking for a house to burgle.

“He was familiar with the layout of these types of flats and when he discovered this opportunity he must have thought all his Christmases had come at once.

“He was a total stranger to this family, he violated their home, he kidnapped a little girl to satisfy his own perverted desires and he has shown neither guilt nor remorse.”