Editor’s note: This story includes details that may disturb some readers.
One question hanging over Lawrence Thompson’s child abduction trial was whether the judge would believe a little girl’s testimony about being plucked off her street corner by a stranger.
Superior Court Justice Alissa Mitchell didn’t just believe her, she said the girl “excelled as a witness” before convicting the former school custodian on all four charges: kidnapping, child abduction, sexual assault and sexual interference.
“The evidence establishes that this was a classic case of stranger abduction,” she said.
Thompson, 68, was arrested and charged May 14, 2018, the day after the Mother’s Day morning kidnapping on a quiet residential street in northeast London. The four-year-old girl was outside picking flowers and looking for ladybugs when she was grabbed off the street.
The hour-long decision Monday was delivered during a teleconference. Thompson, wearing an orange jumpsuit and glasses held together at the bridge with tape, was linked in from the Niagara detention facility.
FULL STORY AT https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/man-68-guilty-in-brazen-kidnapping-of-little-girl-on-london-street-corner
