-Kelly-

Assault could have caused child's death

Saturday Jul 8 12:41 AEST
The trauma of being sexually assaulted could have led to the death of a three-year-old boy, a Sydney court was told.

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, the 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, 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.

source

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Another child what's wrong with everyone

Lain

Yikes! There's just too much going on with kids right now

Have your men spayed and neutered.

jalapeno_wildchild

what mother lets a 34 year old baby-sit their child? if that 34 year old is family then, that's a different story but, the mother should have known better. the guy actually put exposed wires on the kid to help revive him i hope they send that guy to jail, he'll get alot worse in prison than just what he did to the 6 year old.

even in prison you can still get the stuffing kicked out of ya for some crimes. so, i say throw him in prison and let the inmates have at him.

Lain

Well, now we can rule out the possibility of him having a mentality problem.

One such code is that you never harm kids, whether molesting or murdering or assaulting them. And I believe the prisoners do more than just kicking you around and I think we all know that is.

The guy is beyond dumb to think he could revive an unconcious person with wires!! It doesn't say he's a doctor but he definintly is beyond stupidity.

Centerfinn

The guy is stupid if he knows CPR then he should know that wires wouldnt save the child,