July 2012

West Somerset mum’s warning after daughter was sexually assaulted

Timothy Clark, (pictured above) who sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl.

A DEVASTATED mother whose daughter was sexually assaulted by a man with a ‘sexual fixation’ on young girls has issued a warning to other parents.

The woman, from West Somerset, was speaking after 21-year-old Timothy Clark, was given a three-year community order and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register on Tuesday (July 24).

Sound and lighting engineer Clark, of Higher Marsh Farm in Dunster, had earlier pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a child aged under 13 and appeared at Taunton Crown Court for sentencing this week.

The court heard how Clark had used text messages to ‘groom’ his victim before driving her to a secluded wood where he kissed and cuddled her before touching her sexually.

The woman told the County Gazette: “Goodness knows what my daughter is going through in her mind now and what it will do to her later in life.

“I would warn parents to be extra vigilant – you are not always aware of texts and social networking – and though I was as vigilant as I could be his persistence caused this to happen.”

In court, prosecutor Nigel Wraith revealed how Clark had sent a text to the girl which said: “I wish I could cuddle up with you tonight.”

Defending, Mark Worsley said: “The romantic texts are wholly inappropriate but they contained nothing about sexual acts – it was not the language of the texts but the context that was worrying because of the age discrepancy.

“He does recognise the inappropriateness of what he was doing. He has now lost his good name in the community.”

Judge Erik Salomonsen handed Clark a five-year sexual offences prevention order, a three-year community order with a supervision requirement and ordered him to sign the sex offenders’ register for five years.

He was also ordered to pay £1,200 costs and is banned from having contact with girls under 16 in person or on the internet and from having any photos of girls under 16.

The judge said: “The facts of what happened are not the full story – it was also the events which occurred up to that day. Your texts isolated her and estranged her from her family and her mother.

“You have a raised sexual fixation for pre-pubescent girls which poses an immediate risk of serious harm and it is in the public interest that you receive treatment for that.”