Victim of NSW child groomer Zane Clark was 13yo girl in SA state care

The victim of a NSW man’s online child grooming was a 13-year-old girl in the care of the SA Child Protection system, it can be revealed. See his name and face for the first time in SA.

The 13-year-old victim of a NSW man’s online grooming was in the care of South Australia’s Child Protection Department when he attempted to convince her for to have sex with him and send explicit images.

Maroubra man Zane Clark, 21, last week escaped a term of actual imprisonment after pleading guilty in the Downing Centre District Court to using a carriage service to procure a child under 16 for unlawful sexual activity.

He also pleaded guilty to possessing child abuse material and two counts of using a carriage service for transmitting child abuse material.

But department deputy chief executive Fiona Ward has stayed tight-lipped over when the department became aware, and what measures were taken to protect her from him.

Ms Ward instead commented broadly on the wellbeing of children and young people.

Zane Clark received a suspended three year prison sentence for grooming a girl in SA state care.

Zane Clark pleaded guilty to multiple child sex offences after an Australian Federal Police investigation.

“As a community, we are all worried about the safety of children and young people in South Australia and how technology can be misused to target any child by sexual predators,” she said.

“Predatory adults must be held to account for criminal behaviour that puts children and young people at risk.”

SA Police were alerted to Clark’s offending by an aunt of the 13-year-old in March 2020, the court heard, before the formal investigation commenced eight months later.

They then linked Clark to a Skype account he was using to contact the girl.

An Australian Federal Police statement at the time said the investigation started after SA Police received “information from a member of the public about an online user grooming the young girl via Skype”.

As part of the investigation AFP child protection officers searched Clark’s Maroubra home in April 2021 and seized two mobile phones on which they discovered child abuse material of children as young as five.

Zane Clark pictured exiting the Downing centre after his sentence hearing. Picture: NewsWire / Monique Harmer

Clark was charged with the offences he eventually pleaded guilty in July this year – possessing the child abuse material and grooming the 13-year-old.

AFP Constable Rachel Lokugamage described Clark’s offending as having a high-level of manipulation and intent in which he encouraged the young girl to engage with him.

The court heard the girl told Clark how old she was before he sent her a photo of himself topless and said “I don’t care how old you are” and continued to groom her.

Judge Gina O’Rourke sentenced Clark to three years’ imprisonment which she wholly suspended.

Asked what was being done to protect children in state care from alleged sexual crime, Child Protection Minister Katrine Hildyard said the government was committed to the “National Strategy” formulated in response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.