Jury finds man not guilty of historic child sexual abuse in unanimous verdict at Portsmouth Crown Court
Mark Loten had been accused of raping and indecently assaulting a child - but has been cleared of all charges.
A jury has found a man not guilty of historic child sexual offences, a court has heard.
This week, 63-year-old Mark Loten has been on trial at Portsmouth Crown Court for two historic counts of rape and one count of indecent assault. The allegations dated back to the 1970s, with a specific incident in 1979.
Loten’s accuser has a life-long right to anonymity.
At 12.11pm today (Friday, May 5), Judge William Ashworth retired the jury so that they could deliberate and reach a verdict - reminding them that they needed to be unanimous in their decision. At 2.25pm, they returned to the courtroom.
The jury found Loten, from Yapton Road in Littlehampton, not guilty for all three charges. During the evidence stage from the trial, the court was played video footage from his accuser’s police interview, dated September 2021.
Speaking to officers, she said: “I can’t remember the first time it happened, but it was more than once - it must have been three or four times.
“[The final time] my dad flung open the bedroom door - [the defendant] had his head between my legs. I would tell him to stop.
“When my father came into the bedroom, it then stopped. I felt that if I had brought it up he [Loten] would have been protected. I should have brought it up before.”
The court also heard how Loten’s accuser has struggled at points in her life with alcohol addiction. When asked why she didn’t bring forward the allegations sooner, she said she had been scared to do so.
When it was his turn to be cross-examined in court, Loten said: “I never had sexual contact with her. It never took place.
“We simply weren’t close, we were never close.
“I don’t know why she is accusing me of something I didn’t do. I cannot work his one out, and cannot think why she is being so horrible.”
When the jury returned a verdict, the foreman confirmed that they had found Loten not guilty to all three counts.
After the verdict was read out in court, Judge Ashworth said: “Mr Loten you are discharged, that concludes your case.”