Man denies bath abduction charge

The six-year-old girl was found in a back alley

A man accused of snatching a girl, six, from a bath and raping her has denied the charge and said he was ashamed of committing an earlier sex attack.

Peter Voisey, of Blyth, Northumberland, denies abduction, rape and sexual assault in Willington Quay, North Tyneside, on 27 December last year.

He told Newcastle Crown Court of his shame for molesting a 12-year-old girl in Macclesfield in July 2001.

After admitting indecent assault he was sentenced to three years in prison.

Taking the witness stand, Mr Voisey was asked how he felt after committing the assault.

He said: "Utterly ashamed, so sorry that it happened."

'Definitely not'

He added he was disgusted with himself and during his prison sentence would speak regularly with his personal officer.

"I asked if there was something I could do to put it right and she said the best thing I could ever do was to ensure that nothing like that could ever happen again," he told the court.

When asked if it had happened again, he wept and said: "It most definitely has not sir, no."

He wept again when asked if he had carried out the attack on the six-year-old and said he had not.

Mr Voisey explained an entry in his diary for the day the girl was abducted, which read; "Phew, it's over, chill now."

He said that referred to Christmas and the fact that it had gone smoothly.

Buying cannabis

He said he was buying cannabis at about 1900 GMT when the girl was abducted in North Tyneside.

He said he visited a friend's house twice in the East End of Newcastle to try to get hold of drugs and also visited a friend in Blyth, where he managed to get a small amount of cannabis.

Under cross examination, James Goss QC, prosecuting, alleged Mr Voisey was in North Tyneside on 27 December to commit burglaries.

He asked: "Was it something you had been thinking about, abducting a child, taking one off the streets?"

Mr Voisey replied: "Not at all."

Last week the jury heard how the girl was taken from the bathroom of her flat and driven away by an intruder on 27 December.

She was subjected to two serious sexual assaults before being dumped naked and shivering in a freezing back alley.

The trial continues.