INVESTIGATING officers who helped bring a child rapist and attempted murderer to justice described it as one of the ‘most emotional cases’ they have ever worked on.

Anthony Stocks, formerly of an address in Goring, was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court on Friday (July 26) of attempting to murder a 10-year-old boy after he tried to intervene with Stocks assaulting an underage girl.

The 54-year-old had been sexually assaulted her on several occasions in the early 2020s and when the boy tried to stop the assaults, Stocks threw him from a cliff in Ovingdean, Brighton.

READ MORE: Child rapist and attempted murderer handed LIFE sentence

Judge Nigel Daly handed him a life sentence with a minimum term of 19 and a half years.

Speaking about the case, deputy senior investigating officer, detective sergeant Rachel Jackson and deputy senior investigating officer for Sussex Police, detective sergeant Jemma Paterson described it as one of the ‘most emotional’ they had dealt with.

They said: “It’s one of the most emotional cases I've ever dealt with, certainly. And it's impossible not to get invested, especially the children who we worked with for over a year.

“The circumstances of this case were so unusual and not what we necessarily would be dealing with day-to-day.”

Detective sergeant Jackson added: “I attended the scene in Brighton, and it was unlike something I've attended before, mainly because of the amount of witnesses that were present, and they've obviously not dealt with trauma like that.

READ MORE: Children praised for bravery in attempted murder and sexual assault trial

“And having to also think of them as well as the officers…dealing with such a traumatic incident was tough.”

The detectives added that the most difficult part of the case was ‘pulling the different parts’ together because at first it was ‘thought to be a tragic accident’.

They said: “So initially, it was thought to be a tragic accident but as we progressed and started to speak to the children, it then became apparent that there was a picture going that we were completely unaware of.

“The hardest part was pulling it all together, I suppose.

“Also, working between two forces was really challenging and certainly new for both of us. But we developed a really good joint investigation team.

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“And clearly the trauma and the age of the victims was really challenging.”

They also hope the attention and success of the case will bring other victims forward.

“We hope that others feel brave enough to report incidents like this and come forward and know that the police will listen and we will investigate and we will bring these people to justice,” they said.