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Child killer faces longer jail term

By Ian Munro
Law and Justice Editor

June 24, 2004

Bonnie Clarke Malcolm Clarke

State prosecutors are expected to push for the man convicted of the 1982 murder of six-year-old Bonnie Clarke to be declared a "serious sexual offender".

If successful, the move would open the way for Malcolm Joseph Thomas Clarke, 49, to face a jail sentence longer than would normally be the case in his circumstances.

Clarke, formerly of Box Hill, who was convicted of Bonnie's murder last week, was convicted of aggravated rape and manslaughter 20 years ago. Legal sources said it was highly likely the prosecution would move for him to be declared a serious offender.

Provisions of the Sentencing Act, introduced by the Kennett government, appear to target offenders such as Clarke. They require sentencing judges to give most importance to protecting the public in deciding jail sentences for repeat offenders in crimes such as murder, manslaughter, rape, offences against children, intentionally causing serious injury and threats to kill. Offenders can be classified as "serious sexual offenders" after being convicted of two or more sexual offences, or after being convicted of one sexual and one violent offence.

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In such cases, protecting the public takes priority over considerations of age and capacity for rehabilitation.

A spokesman for Attorney-General Rob Hulls said the provisions enabled the court to hand out a stiffer penalty. It was not known how many such offenders were in Victoria, he said.

Clarke, who was not related to his victim, boarded at the Northcote home of Bonnie Clarke and her mother, Marion, during 1982. He moved out several months before returning on December 21 of that year, entering through an unlocked rear door and sexually assaulting and smothering the six-year-old girl.

Two years before, Clarke had strangled and mutilated Theresa Verity Crowe, 22, at her home in Prahran. In August 1983, he broke into the house of a woman whose husband was absent, threatened to kill her child if she did not submit, and raped her over several hours. He served 11 years' jail for manslaughter and rape but was not arrested for Bonnie Clarke's murder until June 2002.

Common to all Clarke's crimes are... direct, personal knowledge of the victims' homes.

Common to all Clarke's crimes are sexual attacks on females, cleaning of the crime scenes and having some direct, personal knowledge of the victims' homes.

It is considered unlikely that the Office of Public Prosecutions will call for an indefinite sentence for Clarke because there is no evidence of his offending since being released from jail in 1994. But legal observers said his sentence was likely to be at the "high end" of murder terms.