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City forced to house rapist who killed girl, 14
Exclusive A TEENAGER was murdered by a convicted rapist who lived next door after Leeds Council were forced to house him.
The Yorkshire Post understands Michael Clark, who was yesterday found guilty of sexually assaulting and killing Polish teenager Zuzanna Zommer, did not want to return to his home town after being released from prison but asked to live in Leeds.
Clark was convicted in 1991 of raping a woman he met in a nightclub and in 1996 was convicted of assaulting two police officers. Two years later he was convicted of indecent assault and affray after he attacked a woman and in 2003 was convicted of attacking a prostitute.
Officials in Leeds Council deemed Clark too dangerous to live in the city, but were forced to house him after being threatened with court action if they did not as a breach of his human rights.
In the end Clark lived next-door-but-one to the Zommers in Compton Row, Harehills.
He befriended the Polish family when they moved into his street and when the victim's parents went out on the morning of October 1 last year to find work in Leeds city centre he killed their 14-year-old daughter.
She had stayed at home to use a laptop computer.
Coun Les Carter, head of neighbourhoods and housing at Leeds City Council, said: "I am appalled. A little girl is dead. This could have been anybody's daughter or grandaughter. It is a disgraceful tale."
After the murder Clark ate a chocolate bar and spent the rest of the day at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. A jury at Sheffield Crown Court took just under two hours to find him guilty.
Zuzanna's body was found by her parents at their home. Clark had cut her throat and smashed her skull, apparently by stamping on her head.
The Zommers were so shattered at the death of their daughter they moved back to Poland although Mr Zommer was in court to give evidence against his daughter's killer. Clark showed no emotion when the jury delivered their verdicts.
He will be sentenced today.
The judge Mr Justice King said the murder was aggravated by the sexual assault beforehand and the sentence would reflect the totality of the crime.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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