‘The real Bling’: Court shown ‘new suspect’

Jerome Joe, of Pightle Crescent, Buckingham is charged alongside ten other defendants, for the crimes which it is claimed were committed in and around Aylesbury.

Joe, is charged with offences against one of the two alleged female victims when she was 14.

He says it is a case of mistaken identity.

And in cross examination of the girl (now 21) who is known as Woman A to protect her identity, his defence highlighted alleged inaccuracies in a number of her statements to the police and in court.

Defence barrister Nina Crinnion showed Woman A pictures of a man who fits her descriptions, saying that he could be the real culprit.

During the morning’s hearing Woman A answered questions about Mr Joe’s body.

But in closing, his defence asked Woman A whether she would have noticed if Mr Joe only had one thumb.

She replied that she would have and it was revealed that Mr Joe, who the alleged victim says she knew as a male model called Bling, had one of his thumbs amputated years before the alleged crimes.

Miss Crinnion said Woman A’s claims that she met Mr Joe through a male relative could also not be true, because the Caribbean defendant has no male relatives in this country.

Miss Crinnion, said: “The man you picked out as Bling hasn’t got a thumb on one of his hands, you would’ve noticed that wouldn’t you?”

She added: “The man you picked out wasn’t a male model, in 2008 (when the alleged incident happened) he was a school caretaker, does that change the certainty?”