JURORS TOLD ALLEGED PANGBOURNE CHILD SEX PREDATOR, JAMIE BURKE, HAS PREVIOUS CONVICTIONS
A MAN who denies abducting and raping a 12-year-old has previous convictions for child sex offences.The revelation came during the trial of the 33-year-old, who is said to have threatened to kill a member of his alleged victims family if she told anyone.
The prosecution at Reading Crown Court claims Jamie Burke, who was living at Bourne Road in Pangbourne, also took photographs of the terrified pre-teen as she lay, naked and vulnerable, in his back seat, while telling her he would sell the images to others.
Burke had initially denied multiple counts of child sex abuse in respect of two children aged 12 and 15 years, plus rape and related offences in respect of the 12-year-old.
But before the trial began on Monday, January 19, he changed his pleas in respect of the elder schoolgirl.
Jurors have now been told he has admitted multiple counts of sexual activity with a child, including penetrative sex acts, involving the 15-year-old.
In respect of the 12-year-old, prosecutor Lisa Goddard told the court the child had been walking home from her West Berkshire school when Burke first abducted her.
She added: She was telling him to let her go; he didnt say anything until they got to the woods.
The child was unable to escape because of a safety locking mechanism, the court heard, and Ms Goddard said: After he stopped the car Mr Burke climbed from the front and pinned her arms down so she couldnt move.
He then stripped off all her clothes and began to take photos, said Ms Goddard, all the while kissing her on the lips and touching her.
The girl was begging him to stop, jurors were told, but Burke told her to keep still as he committed a penetrative sexual assault.
When he had finished, the court heard, he told her to get dressed, unlocked the car and told her to get out.
Burke then drove away, said Ms Goddard, abandoning his alleged victim, alone, in the wooded area.
Having warned the girl he would sell the photographs he had taken, Burke was said to have repeatedly abducted her as she walked home from school, taking her to secluded areas and perpetrating more abuse.
On one occasion he grabbed her head and forced her to commit a sex act on him.
By now, said Ms Goddard, the terrified girl was resigned to her fate, believing that Burke would chase her down and force her into his car if she resisted.
She told jurors: She felt there was no point trying to run away as he would catch her anyway he told her not to tell anyone she was scared of him.
Burke also threatened to kill a member of her family if she told anyone, the court heard.
The abuse was by now happening up to twice a week, said Ms Goddard.
Lyall Thompson, defending, revealed that his client would not be giving evidence under oath from the witness box, on which he could have been cross examined.
Instead, he said, Burke would be relying on his written statement to police in which he denied ever having been alone with the child, much less having sexually assaulted and raped her.
He added: There is nothing that Mr Burke has to prove; he has the absolute right to remain silent.
Its a very difficult thing to stand up in front of strangers and give evidence.
In respect of Burke declining to testify in his own defence, Ms Goddard told the court: You may feel there are questions you would have liked answers to and suggested his decision reflected the fact that he had no good answer to the charges.
Ms Goddard suggested his prior convictions demonstrated a proclivity for wanting to have sex with children.
Mr Thompson, meanwhile, pointed to inconsistencies in the alleged victims evidence which, he said, irrevocably undermined her credibility.
He suggested she had previously made similar allegations of sexual assault which appeared to have been false.
In addition, said Mr Thompson, the girl had initially claimed she had not had vaginal intercourse with Burke - but later changed her story after it was pointed out she had made that claim to adults.
The court heard that the 12-year-old had gone missing from home and, when found, had told carers that she had stayed in a hotel with an adult but that she had not implicated Burke.
Mr Thompson conceded that his client had been having sex with another child but asked the jury: Is it fair that weve been told about this?
He suggested she had previously made similar allegations of sexual assault which appeared to have been false.
In addition, said Mr Thompson, the girl had initially claimed she had not had vaginal intercourse with Burke - but later changed her story after it was pointed out she had made that claim to adults.
The offences committed against the 15-year-old were not committed in a car, but at home; on a bed; in front of the television, said Mr Thompson, and did not involve being dragged off the street and being abused in a car.
He concluded: Theres so much doubt in this case - were not talking about reasonable doubt.
Theres so much doubt your only verdicts can be not guilty.
Jurors are this morning [Wednesday] considering those verdicts.
