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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).
"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.
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.