Two Year Probation for Cobra Owner Helder Claro

Helder claro a pet shop owner was sentenced to two years probation for groping two teenaged girls.

His deadly cobra forced the evacuation of a rooming house beside his home. Helder Claro was convicted in May of two counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual exploitation.

The teenage victims testified that Claro caressed and groped them on several occasions in 2005 while briefly working in his pet shop. One of the girls testified that Claro terrified her by talking about letting snakes loose in people's homes. The victims said they were terrified at first to complain because they feared Claro's temper.

Carlo denied the charges saying that it was the girls who would bump into him accidentally. And that they were framing him because he has fired them from the job.

The father of five, with a minor criminal record, recently finished serving the equivalent of a year in jail after pleading guilty to mischief and common nuisance for letting his cobra escape. It was seen slithering through the walls of his semi-detached rental home Last fall, the snake threat forced long-time elderly tenants to move from the rooming house adjoining Claro's rented home and cost two landlords dearly in lost rental income. The snake was never found.

Claro also kept a cobra at his locker at work. He didn't mention it when he was arrested, and a co-worker who found it narrowly missing being attacked, a snake expert testified.

Provincial court judge Kathleen Caldwell said 39-year-old Helder Claro has difficulty understanding the impact of his actions on others. Terrify the teens with cobra was his way of controlling them and get his way with them.

Caldwell ordered him not to be alone or in a position of trust with any female under the age 18, unless it is his child.

The judge did not believe him and sentenced him on 3 charges out of five.

Claro were also convicted of operating a pet shop without a license in 2003. He was fined $4,000 and received 18 months probation.

Caldwell said she hopes the sentence and counseling will teach Clara to change his ways.

Source-Medindia
BIN/M