A convicted rapist, who
attacked a woman in an alleyway twenty years ago, has been cleared of
molesting a nine year-old girl.
Daniel Borgers, 41, (pictured) of
Napier Crescent, Scarborough was arrested and charged after the
girl's step-father read about the rape conviction in a local
newspaper.
However, a Blackfriars
Crown Court jury acquitted the serving prisoner of sexually
assaulting the girl, then aged nine, at an address in Monklands,
Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire in March, 2007.
Borgers, who is serving
seven-and-a-half years, breathed a noticable sigh of relief and
nodded his head in affirmation of the jury's verdict.
His parents, who supported
him throughout the trial, were also visably relieved and his mother
broke down in tears.
He raped a woman in her
40's in a Stotfold, Bedfordshire, alleyway in October, 1992 as she
walked home from a relative's house on a footpath between Arlesey
Road and Mixies one evening.
Borgers grabbed her from
behind and forced her to the floor, raped her and ran away,
threatening to slit her throat.
He was arrested when DNA
taken by North Yorkshire Police after a minor drugs offence matched
the rapist's semen sample.
The case was widely
reported and the Letchworth Garden City girl's step-father, knowing
the family had contact with Borgers several years earlier, quizzed
her about him.
She said Borgers had
toucher her one night as she shared a bed with her step-brother, but
had kept most of the intimate details secret out of embarrasment.
“One night she was
asleep in her brother's bed when she was awoken by a shadow passing
across her face,” prosecutor Miss Isabel Dellamere told the jury.
“She saw the defendant
there and he was touching her softly up and down her legs and touched
her chest.
“She describes a
circular motion and Mr. Borgers grabbing her breasts and she says he
was trying to move the nightdress up.
“Using his palms he
touched her thighs and then touched the inside of her thighs and she
describes him breathing heavily.
“She shouted for her mum
who came to the door and asked what Mr. Borgers was doing there and
the defendant said he was just talking.”
The jury was told that
sometimes Borgers would sleep with the girl's mother and sometimes
sleep in the girl's bed alone when he arrived drunk, while she shared
with her brother.
“She describes the
defendant as someone who gave her cuddles and tickles a lot,” added
Miss Dellamere.”
The jury were shown a
videoed police interview in which the girl told officers: “I woke
up and Dan was crouched down on the floor and was touching me softly,
rubbing up and down my leg and my breasts and I could hear heavy
breathing.
“I was frightened to say
anything, because I was only nine.
“I was shocked and
uncomfortable.
“I think that was the
whole thing, he was trying to move the nightie up.
'There was deep heavy
breathing and I could feel it down my neck, that was while he was
touching my boob with one hand first of all.”
After three or four
minutes her mother came to the bedroom door and Borgers left, but
even though this was a one-off the witness said his behaviour on
other occasions was inappropriate.
“When he came in he
would want to cuddle me and tickle my side. I thought it was a bit
weird for mum's boyfriend to do that kind of thing.
“It was about a week
later that I told my mum, but I don't think she believed me.
“I felt embarrassed
about telling me mum about the touching of the breasts.”
The court heard the girl's
new step-father asked her about Borgers when he read a newspaper
report in August, last year that named him.
She revealed to the family
for the first time: “He touched my boobs.”
Borgers was arrested on
August 24, last year and told police he was confused about the
lay-out of the three-bedroom house after drinking heavily and smoking
cannabis.
“He said in a 'fuzzy'
state he got into the wrong bedroom and got into the kids' bed,”
explained Miss Dellamere.
“He said when he
realised it was not their mother's bed he got up and curled up on the
floor.
“He denied touching her
in any way at all.”
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