MAN RAPED TEEN AND SAID NO ONE WOULD BELIEVE HER
A man from Brixham, aged 56, has received a nine-year prison sentence after raping a teenage girl and attempting to persuade her to remain silent about the incident.The court was informed that Clarke exploited the girl while she was intoxicated and asleep on a sofa.
According to witnesses, he began touching the distressed teenager and disregarded her attempts to resist.
Throughout the trial, Clarke maintained that he was not guilty, but the jury found him guilty of rape and assault by penetration.
In sentencing, the judge emphasized that Clarke's actions had led the girl to feel as though she was partly responsible for what happened.
The judge clarified, however, that she was not at fault and that Clarke alone was to blame.
The court also heard a heartfelt statement read by the girl herself, expressing that she had been independent and outgoing before the assault and used to be unafraid of solitude.
But what Clarks did to her changed all that.
"What he did to me completely turned the world upside down," she said.
She now locks doors when she is alone and her mental health and self-confidence deteriorated.
"My life seemed to be about what happened, I had recurring nightmares and flashbacks most nights." The stress caused by what happened took a huge toll on her health and she worried about ever being happy again.
She criticised the slow pace of justice.
"The whole criminal justice system was so long and hard.
It was difficult to move on as it was always hanging over me.
I thought I would never get justice and it has felt never-ending.
"I am so pleased the jury found him guilty and the evidence found I am not the liar, Simon Clarke is the liar.
The trial was horrific.
I remember people discussing me and my private parts and I felt I had to hide away.
"Giving evidence in court was the second most horrific thing I've experienced.
Having to relive it and then feel I was a liar by the defence barrister.
I am so pleased justice has been served and he is held accountable for the damage he's done to my life." She said she was now able to move on thanks to the support of family.
"I will not let this experience break me," she vowed.
Mr William Parkhill, defending, said Clarke, of Home Close, was a man of previous good character and his offence was not part of a wider pattern of sex offence.
He is not a danger to the public.
Recorder Mathew Turner said: "You took advantage of her when she was affected by alcohol and tiredness.
She told you to stop and didn't want to do anything.
She tried to get you off her.
You then raped her.
"You told her not to say anything to anybody and no one would believe her.
She was deeply confused about what had taken place, never having had a boyfriend before, and was terrified police would not believe her or would think she was responsible.
"She was just a child.
You were so much older than her." Clarke must serve two thirds of this sentence in prison before he is eligible for release and the rest on licence.
