Graveyard sex accused cleared (From The Northern Echo)

Graveyard sex accused cleared

8:00am Friday 17th February 2012 in Bishop Auckland News By Neil Hunter

A JURY took only half-an-hour to clear a man of a graveyard sex attack in which he was alleged to have dragged his victim to the ground and pinned her down.

Gareth Bell admitted putting a love-bite on the young woman’s neck – but claimed she asked him to do it to make her boyfriend jealous and split up with her.

Mr Bell, 29, was accused of dragging the woman into the churchyard in Shildon, County Durham, after meeting her on a late-night walk home from the pub.

The prosecution claimed he threw her to the ground, sat on her, pinned her down, tried to kiss her, and put the love-bite on the side of her neck in the attack.

Teesside Crown Court was told during a two-day trial that the woman screamed and struggled free before running into the road and flagging down a car.

The motorist, a teacher, told the jury of seven women and two men that the alleged victim was distressed and covered in mud when she got into her vehicle.

In a recorded police interview shown to the court, the accuser said: “He sat on top of us and pinned us down and was trying to kiss us. I was moving my head to stop him.

“I just kept screaming. I was screaming when he was dragging me. I just kept fighting him. I got up and ran away and that’s when the car came.”

Mr Bell, of Southland Gardens, Shildon, denied a charge of sexual assault, and told the jury that he did not go into the graveyard with the woman.

He said they bumped into one another as they walked home separately at 2am, and she started to tell him about the troubles she was having with her boyfriend.

“I thought it was a bit strange at first [her asking for a lovebite],”

said Mr Bell, under questions from Graeme Gaston, prosecuting.

“I thought I’d be helping her out.”

He agreed with Mr Gaston’s suggestion that he was acting as a good Samaritan, and denied he had made up the story to explain the mark on her neck.

Mr Bell said the car driver was wrong in claiming she saw him tugging at the woman by the side of the road, and that she was caked in mud.

He said the accuser had earlier asked his cousin to give her a love-bite, and his relative branded him “stupid” for agreeing to do it.