Convicted Rapist Cleared Of Molesting Nine Year-Old Girl

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.”