Man took pornographic pictures of girl while she slept
Victim didn’t know what had happened until she was contacted by police many years later
Graphic content warning: this article contains details that may be disturbing to some readers.
CORNER BROOK — She was just 11 years old when Oral Clarke took pictures of her sleeping on a cot in his home in St. Jude’s.
The pictures included 11 closeups of her genitals while she slept underneath a blanket. In some her underwear is on and in some it is off.
She only found out about the pictures and what happened to her when approached by police in 2017 as they investigated Clarke for the internet luring of another child.
The pictures were found on a laptop seized from Clarke’s home during a 2016 investigation that resulted in convictions in 2017 and 2018 on charges of internet luring, accessing child pornography, making sexually explicit material available to a child and possessing child pornography.
As an officer went through the laptop, he saw the photos of the young girl in a bedroom, which he recognized as being in Clarke’s home.
Clarke has acknowledged he took the pictures while the girl was visiting his home and that he touched her to remove her underwear to take the pictures.
The child’s identity was confirmed during the investigation and, when she was contacted by police, the then 20-year-old confirmed the pictures were of her and that she remembered being at Clarke’s home in July 2008.
Clarke was convicted in provincial court in Corner Brook on Thursday of sexual interference for touching the girl to remove her underwear and of making child pornography for taking the pictures.
The woman, who listened to the appearance by telephone, submitted a victim impact statement to the court. She had originally indicated she would read it herself, but later changed her mind.
Crown prosecutor Trina Simms referred to it in her submission on sentencing. The woman spoke of being under stress, and feeling insecure and uncomfortable visiting people, and expressed a fear the same thing could happen with her own children.
In addition to the two offences from 2008, Clarke was found guilty Thursday of luring a child from the 2017 investigation that resulted in finding the pictures.
In that case, police received information that a 12-year-old girl in the province had been chatting on Facebook messenger with a person she thought was a 14-year-old boy named Ammon Charlebois.
This was the same profile Clarke had used in his other offences.
In messages exchanged between May 2016 and June 2016, Clarke repeatedly asked the girl for pictures of herself, mirror pictures and selfies, to show him her bra and to take selfies under the desk. He asked her to show him some “booty” and to send him pictures of her 10-year-old friend.
Later messages included questions of a sexual nature, such as whether anyone had touched her breasts or her vagina, but using crude language.
There were three images of the girl on Clarke’s laptop.
Simms asked the court to impose a total sentence of 4 1/2 years on the three charges. She suggested 12 months on the luring charge, 12-18 months on the sexual interference charge and 12-24 months on the making of child pornography charge, and that they be served consecutively.
Clarke’s lawyer, Rosellen Sullivan, argued for a sentence of 18 months in total. She suggested one year on the luring and six months total for the sexual interference and making child pornography.
Sullivan said the sentences should fall more in the range of the mandatory minimums for the charges at the time they occurred, and there was nothing in the facts that would bring them above the mandatory minimums.
Despite his other convictions, Clarke would be considered a first-time offender for the 2008 charges.
Clarke appeared by video from Dorchester Penitentiary in New Brunswick. He is scheduled for a parole hearing late next month.
Sullivan said he has completed a sex offender program while in jail and that he has health issues.
Judge Kari Ann Pike will give her decision on sentencing on May 26.