Trial update: Carnforth filmmaker denies passionate kiss

A local history filmmaker has told a court he did not passionately kiss a woman with learning difficulties when he took her out in his car.
Preston Crown Court.Preston Crown Court.
Preston Crown Court.

Christopher Abram, 73, insisted he had pushed the young woman away when she gave him a big, sloppy kiss on the lips as they sat in the vehicle at Paint Mine Woods, Carnforth.

Abram, who denies sexual activity with a person who lacks mental capacity, told Preston Crown Court he did not take advantage of the woman and his only indiscretion had been to ignore his wife’s advice against taking the woman out.

The defendant said on Wednesday: “I did not kiss her.

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“When we were pulling away she landed a great big sloppy kiss on my lips and I pushed her away.

“We were not kissing passionately at all. The prosecution are trying to make something out of absolutely nothing.”

The court heard Abram’s wife Muriel gave police a statement about the day the incident is alleged to have happened.

She told officers her husband had arrived home at about 4pm and had asked whether she thought the woman was on the pill.

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She said: “I found this odd because I hadn’t seen her or been with her.”

But Abram insisted his query was not about whether the woman was using contraception but whether she was on medication.

He also claimed excerpts taken from his diary in which he said his arrest was “my own stupid fault” were written when he was shocked and suicidal and his mind was all over the place.

Jonathan Stanley Stagg, a filmmaker who has known Abram for around eight years, said his friend is “a very straightforward, very agreeable man. Somebody who has a clear view of justice and a clear view of what is correct.”

The case continues.

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