Girl, 14, had throat slit by convicted rapist who befriended her family

A 14-year-old Polish girl starting a new life in England was sexually assaulted and murdered by a convicted rapist who befriended her family, a court heard yesterday.

Zuzanna Zommer was alone at home and playing on her computer when Michael Clark, 39, who lived two doors away, got into the house, it was alleged.

Clark, who has a long criminal record for sex crimes and violence, stabbed the schoolgirl in the stomach, cut her throat and fractured her skull by stamping on her head, Sheffield Crown Court was told.

Armed with two knives, he allegedly took the terrified teenager into her parents' bedroom and carried out a serious sexual assault as he pinned her to the floor before murdering her.

On the day of the murder Zuzanna and her parents walked her nine-year-old brother Mikotej to his first day at school in England.

Zuzanna had not yet been found a school place and returned home.

Her parents went out job-hunting and shopping in Leeds city centre and returned in the afternoon to find their daughter's bloodstained and semi-naked body.

Robert and Matgorzarta Zommer, who had been in the country with their two children for only two months, were barely able to speak English but neighbours who heard their cries dialled 999.

Adrian Waterman QC, prosecuting, told the jury Clark was quickly identified as a suspect by police and arrested at home later that evening.

Forensic scientists found "extremely strong" evidence linking him to the murder.

Bloodstains matching the victim's DNA profile were found on a T-shirt and pair of boxer shorts in his house as well as on a sock and the training shoes he was wearing.

Fibres matching two tops worn by the girl when she was attacked were found on the defendant's bloodstained T-shirt, while fibres from this shirt were also discovered on her bare skin.

A bloodstain said to be from Zuzanna was also found on a cellar door frame at Clark's home and on the front-door handle of the Zommers' house in Compton Row, Leeds.

The two murder weapons were found in the kitchen sink and bin, still wet with the girl's blood.

After killing Zuzanna, Clark set about providing himself with a false alibi, Mr Waterman told the jury.

He changed some clothes at home and went to a nearby post office where he knew he would be captured on CCTV.

He then drove to Blackpool and spent the day on theme park rides, where his movements were again recorded electronically.

But Mr Waterman told the jury the last "action" Zuzanna took on her laptop computer was at 10.21am and Clark was in the post office by 10.45am.

He said it was "perfectly feasible" for Clark to have murdered the girl in this period.

Mr Waterman said of Zuzanna: "You may think in the face of what confronted her, a grown man armed with knives and sexual and murderous intent, she was indeed defenceless."

Clark denies murder and assault on October 1 last year.

Mr Waterman said the victim's father had begun to feel "uneasy" about Clark, who "appeared to be neighbourly" towards them and had attended a family barbecue.

Clark made excuses to visit regularly and walked in without knocking on one occasion, prompting Mr Zommer to ask him to leave.

Clark had previously been convicted of raping a woman he met in a nightclub in 1991 and also had a "significant" glue-sniffing problem, the jury was told.

He was convicted of assaulting two police officers in 1996 and two years later was convicted of indecent assault and affray over an attack on a female friend who managed to escape during the incident.

Five years ago, he was also convicted of attacking a prostitute.

Mr Waterman said the jury could "take into account" Clark's record when considering their verdicts.

The trial continues.