Man guilty in child sexual assault case

A Dacono man was convicted last week of imprisoning and repeatedly sexually assaulting a child.

Dante Larks, 43, was found guilty of charges including sexual assault with a deadly weapon, child abuse causing serious bodily injury and two counts of sex assault on a child – position of trust and pattern of abuse, according to a release from the Weld District Attorney’s Office.

Larks is set for sentencing on July 11 and is facing up to 142 years in prison.

The trial took three weeks and was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorneys Arynn Clark and Yvette Guthrie.

“This case, is by far, one of the most horrific and egregious cases that our office has ever seen,” Weld District Attorney Michael Rourke said in a statement. “No child should ever experience the horror and trauma that this child will now have to live forever with. This is why we do what we do each day. We’ll do whatever it takes to ensure monsters like this will never have an opportunity to harm another child.”

According to prosecutors, the Weld District Attorney’s Office began investigating Larks for child abuse and child sex assault allegations in 2019. Investigation revealed that the victim was verbally, physically, emotionally and sexually abused by the defendant.

The victim told investigators Larks would lock them in the unfinished basement many nights over a period of several months. The child wasn’t allowed out of the basement except for a few hours a day, and at times, had to go to the bathroom in a bucket.

The child also reported that Larks would throw peanuts down the stairs for food, and would sexually assault them while armed with a gun.

“To our knowledge, this is the first time prosecutors have ever convinced both a judge and a jury that the impact and long-term damage that (post-traumatic stress disorder) does to the brain can, and in this case did, create serious bodily injury,” Rourke said in a statement.