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William Thomas CLARE

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Classification: Homicide
Characteristics: Serial rapist - Pedophile
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder: September 16, 2003
Date of birth: 1971
Victim profile: A three-year-old boy
Method of murder: Cause of death was not established
Location: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Status: Found guilty of manslaughter. Sentenced to life in prison (minimum 25 years) in August 2006
 
 
 
 
 
 

Name: William Thomas Clare

Age: 35yrs old (2006)

State: NSW

Sentence: Sentenced to 16 yrs jail for rape of 6yr old girl. Convicted again in August 2006 for the rape/ manslaughter of a 3yr old boy. Sentenced to 25yrs jail/ 18yrs 9 months non parole (manslaughter), with another 14yrs (sexual assault of his victim). Sentences to be served concurrently. Clare will be eligible for parole in 2033.

Offence/Other: Victim was a 6yr old girl. Clare raped his victim/ videotaping the assault/ later forcing her to watch the footage. Current conviction relates to the rape/ manslaughter of a 3yr year old boy (the brother of the 6yr year old girl).

 
 

Child killer jailed for 25 years

Geesche Jacobsen - The Sydney Morning Herald

August 11, 2006

A pedophile and convicted killer has been jailed for up to 25 years following the rape and manslaughter of a three-year-old boy.

William Thomas Clare, 34, will not be released from jail before July 2033 after he was sentenced to a minimum of 18 years and nine months this morning in the NSW Supreme Court.

Clare's sentence was added to a jail term he is already serving for the assault of the boy's six-year-old sister.

Clare, who had been babysitting the two children, was caught after he filmed himself raping the girl on September 12, 2003.

He was known to police as a child-sex offender and the Department of Community Services had been notified several times of the case.

Justice Michael Grove told the court that the attack on the boy, known only as J, "was accompanied by an intention to gratify a depraved sexual urge [and] falls within the category of the worst case of manslaughter.

"Words are really an insufficient medium to convey an appropriate condemnation of your debauched behaviour," Justice Grove told Clare.

Outside court today, the boy's family, who cannot be named, welcomed the sentence.

"I am just so relieved that society will be able to move on and not have somebody of this nature and character out on the streets upsetting anyone else and their family," the childrens' father said.

Their grandmother said the judge was understanding of the problems the little boy had faced.

"It was a very, very sad and traumatic time I'm sure for him, and it has been very difficult for us and we are very thankful to the judge."

Clare began minding the brother and sister the month before the three-year-old boy died, the Supreme Court was told last month.

Seeing the mother and her children at a Sydney rail station, he told her she looked "worn out" and offered to babysit.

The woman took him up on the offer, paying him $30 a day to look after her children.

But on September 13, 2003, after Clare raped the boy, the child vomited and stopped breathing.

Clare said he applied a 240-volt current to the boy's chest "like a heart-starter" in an effort to revive him. But this attempt to "jump-start" the boy's heart could have killed him, the jury heard.

Clare had pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the boy at his unit at Croydon, but denied murdering him.

Last month the jury took less than three hours before finding him not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter.

Clare was also sentenced today to 14 years for the aggravated sexual assault of the boy.

The sentences, to be served concurrently, will not begin until 2015 which is Clare's earliest release date for the rape of the six-year-old girl.

 
 

Sex Abuse 'Could Have Killed Toddler'

By Kim Arlington - AAP

July 7, 2006

The trauma of being sexually assaulted could have led to the death of a three-year-old boy, a Sydney court was told today.

William Thomas Clare, who has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the child on September 13, 2003, is accused of murdering him later that day.

The boy and his six-year-old sister - neither of whom can be named - had been living with Clare at his unit at Concord, in Sydney's inner west, for about three weeks.

Clare had approached the children's mother at a train station and she accepted his offer to babysit, a Supreme Court trial has heard.

Just after midnight on September 14, Clare phoned triple-0, saying the boy had vomited and couldn't breathe.

Clare, who had anal intercourse with the boy, later told police the child vomited in his sleep.

But medical experts had testified that "significant pain and trauma can cause vomiting", crown prosecutor Christopher Maxwell QC said, and it was possible the child died after choking on his vomit.

"So what caused the vomiting? The crown submits (it was) the sexual intercourse," he said.

"At the time he was inflicting or committing this sexual intercourse, perhaps part of the aim was to get some sexual gratification.

"But part of what's going on in his head was a clear awareness of what he was doing and the pain he was causing."

Clare, 34, has pleaded not guilty to murdering the boy, whose cause of death was not established.

He told police that when the boy did not respond to CPR, he tried to revive him using exposed wires from an electrical cord "like a heart-starter", applying 240 volts to his chest.

In closing submissions to the jury today, Mr Maxwell said if they found the boy had choked to death, the electric shocks were "no more than this accused realising what he had done and then making some desperate attempt to get out of it".

But if the boy was still alive when Clare applied the electrical current, it was capable of killing him, Mr Maxwell said.

He invited the jury to reject Clare's account that he used the wires in an attempt to save the boy's life.

"Even a person of limited intelligence would know the terrible danger, the lethal danger, of putting electricity like this on anyone," Mr Maxwell said.

The trial continues before Justice Michael Grove on Monday.

 
 

Boy Died in Paedophiles' Care

By Megan Saunders - The Australian

October 12, 2004

A SHOCKING case of child sexual abuse by two known pedophiles involving the death of a three-year-old boy and the rape of his six- year-old sister has exposed the glaring failings of the New South Wales child protection regime.

The siblings were left by their mother in the care of two men known to police as sex offenders.

A damning Ombudsman's report into the case showed the Department of Community Services had been alerted seven times to suspected abuse dating back more than three years leading up to the boy's death in September last year.

The boy, who had injuries indicating sexual abuse, died two days after one of the men videotaped himself raping the boy's six-year-old sister.

The pedophiles had tried to revive the boy using electrical wiring.

The children's mother had befriended one of the sex offenders at a train station, and, after she complained about being unable to find an affordable babysitter, left them in the pair's care.

NSW Ombudsman Bruce Barbour singled out the rape and death case as he cast doubt on the effectiveness of the entire state child protection system.

No one has yet been charged with the boy's death. But one of the men, William Thomas Clare, was sentenced in October this year to 16 years' jail for the rape of the boy's sister. Police and the NSW Coroner continue to investigate the case.

"At the time of his death, (the boy) was placed into care by his mother of two gentlemen who were known to police as being sex offenders," Mr Barbour said.

The seven notifications, including from a doctor and a neighbour, "depicted a trend of neglect which was very significant and serious".

"We are concerned that DOCS did not handle this case effectively. We are concerned that some of the decisions that were made in relation to it were made very poorly."

The Ombudsman's report also raises concerns about police handling of the case saying there was a "lack of rigour" in following up earlier claims that the girl had been raped by the mother's boyfriend at the time.

Mr Barbour called for a "threshold test", making it harder for authorities to close the books on cases of suspected child abuse and neglect.

Releasing his first review of child deaths, Mr Barbour said problems had arisen as a result of "poor decision-making and poor intervention", and he did not accept that a lack of resources was the key problem.

His report, examining the deaths of 161 children, found that in three- quarters of cases either the child or a sibling had been reported to the Department of Community Services (DOCS) in the three years before the child died.

Community Services Minister Carmel Tebbutt yesterday accepted the Ombudsman's recommendation for a "threshold test" and the need for a review of the specific case.

But: she said: "The child-protection system can never replace loving, effective, nurturing parents as the best way to keep children safe."

Mr Barbour also raised concerns about the failure of the broader community to protect children, with the number of reports to DOCS increasing by 26 per cent over the past year.

In 2002-2003 there were a total of 146,877 reports of abuse and neglect against children, rising to 185,198 reports in 2003-2004.

"Surely a civilised society must be able to embrace the concept that one of the most important things, that it should hold in regard is the care and welfare of its children," he said.

 
 

Child Rape On Videotape

Sydney Morning Herald

October 16, 2004

A man could face more than 25 years' jail for rapinq a six-year- old girl and forcing her to watch a video recording of it.

The offence was discovered when police were called to a house where the girl's brother had died in suspicious circumstances.

William Thomas Clare will be sentenced next Thursday.

 

 

 
 
 
 
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