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Neil Fox appears in court on sex offence charges
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 17 April 2015
Radio presenter Neil Fox yesterday appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court for a preliminary hearing on charges related to alleged sexual and indecent assaults against six women between 1991 and 2014, four aged sixteen or under at the time it is claimed the incidents took place. He denies all the charges.
As previously reported, Fox was first arrested over allegations of sexual assault last September, and has since been taken in for questioning on two further occasions. He was then charged with nine sexual offences in March.
Appearing in court yesterday, it was ruled that Fox should face a summary trial without jury at the magistrates’ court. However, said Chief Magistrate Howard Riddle, if it seemed that Fox’s alleged crimes should carry a heavier sentence than the twelve month maximum the court could impose, the case would be referred to crown court.
Fox’s lawyers also successfully applied for reporting restrictions on the case to be lifted, which is a surprising request for the defence to make, though Jonathan Caplan QC said that the restrictions had led to inaccurate gossip about the nature of the alleged assaults online, adding for clarity that there were no allegations of “any kind of penetration”.
Two incidents are claimed to have taken place at a motor show on Bromley Common in 1991. Fox is said to have forced his tongue into the mouth of a girl aged thirteen or fourteen who approached him for a photograph, and another girl aged fifteen at the same event, as well as touching her bottom. Then in 1996, he is accused of forcing his tongue into the mouth of a sixteen year old girl at a Capital Radio roadshow at Chessington World Of Adventures, again after she approached him for a photograph.
In 2003, he is accused of four indecent assaults against a woman over the age of sixteen at Capital Radio’s studios, squeezing her breasts through her clothing, touching her bottom, grabbing her from behind and simulating sex, and putting his hand between her legs and touching her over her clothing.
At Magic FM’s studio in 2007, he is accused of tickling a woman, putting his hands inside her top, and then pushing her onto a sofa, getting on top of her and simulating sex. The most recent accusation is also alleged to have taken place at Magic FM, in which he is said to have kissed a co-worker’s shoulder and told her: “I just had to, it looks as if you taste so good”.
The prosecution told the court that Fox had shown “a consistent and determined pattern of sexual predatory behaviour”. He denies the seven charges of indecent assault and two of sexual assault. He will appear again for a plea and case management hearing on 30 Apr, with a trial expected to begin in the autumn.
