Court

Doctor Goes On Trial Over Grooming Charge
Thur 8th Nov 2012, Yellow Advertiser

A MAN has gone on trial for meeting a 15-year-old boy from Benfleet with the intention of committing a sexual offence.

Dr Anton Van Dellen, 41, of Stamford Brook Avenue, Chiswick, denies the charge.

Prosecutor Cyrus Shroff told Basildon Crown Court that Mr Van Dellen had contacted the teenager on social networking website Facebook in May 2011, using a profile that did not have a profile photo and did not display his age.

Mr Shroff said Mr Van Dellen told the boy he was 21. He told jurors the pair had a ‘protracted conversation’ and agreed to meet in Benfleet.

Mr Van Dellen picked the boy up in his silver Volkswagen on June 12, 2011.

Mr Shroff said the boy was ‘surprised to see Mr Van Dellen was older than 21’.

They drove to the more secluded Bramble Road where the boy claimed Mr Van Dellen kissed him, unzipped his trousers and encouraged him to commit a sexual act.

The boy said he did not respond and then tried to ignore Mr Van Dellen by listening to music and looking out of the window.

He claimed that after two more failed attempts to instigate sex, Mr Van Dellen then performed acts on himself.

Later that night the boy told his friend and sister what he claimed had happened and the police were called.

Officers arrested Mr Van Dellen in the early hours of June 13, 2011. Forensic teams examined his car and the alleged crime scene.

Mr Shroff accepted that some of the findings in the car challenged some parts of the boy’s story.

Mr Van Dellen claimed the boy was the sexual instigator and had directed him to the secluded road.

He said he had repeatedly told the boy nothing ‘naughty’ could happen when they met.

Defence barrister Patrick Gibbs said the Facebook messages supported this.

Mr Van Dellen told cops that when he rejected the boy, the boy performed an act on himself, a claim rejected by the alleged victim but supported by forensic findings.

Asked by police why he had added the 15-year-old boy on Facebook, Van Dellen said he knew lots of young people after returning to university in 2007 and often added mutual friends.

He said he had 700 or 800 friends on Facebook and added 10 or 15 every day.

He said he did not have a profile photo because he couldn’t find one he liked and did not list his age because people ‘teased’ him about being 40.

Asked why he chose to meet the boy instead of talking by telephone, text message or Facebook, he said he had ‘felt like a drive’.

The trial continues.

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