Playboy guilty of sex attack on girl

A millionaire was found guilty yesterday of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old girl after luring her to sleep in his bed with another teenager and a male friend.

Baron Bloom, 28, the son of the property magnate Desmond Bloom, assaulted the girl in his flat in Hammersmith, west London, in September 2001 after she was unable to return home from a night out clubbing with Bloom and her 14-year-old friend. The assault occurred after the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had taken her friend to hospital when she became unwell at a Mayfair nightclub Bloom had taken them to.

Bloom was also charged with indecently assaulting the 14-year-old, with whom he began a relationship last year, but the jury of six men and six women at the Old Bailey was unable to reach a verdict. He may now face a retrial in July next year. Bloom, who once featured in an article in a women's magazine about the ideal bachelor, was charged with four counts of indecent assault, two against each girl, in February and September last year.

The judge, Recorder Stephen Kramer QC, directed the jury to acquit him of one assault on the 14-year-old while the jury was unable to reach a verdict on the other. He found Bloom not guilty of one charge relating to the 15-year-old and the jury returned a guilty verdict on the remaining charge.

Both girls testified via video link as to how he took advantage of young girls by engineering situations in which he took them to his flat, and impressed them with sports cars and offers of foreign holidays.

The case continues.