Sex Offender May Have Used Dating App To Rape Women: LAPD

SAN FERNANDO VALLEY, CA — Authorities believe a convicted sex offender may have used dating apps and tales of entertainment industry connections to lure women to his home where he sexually assaulted them.

Police Wednesday announced the arrest of 40-year-old Aaron Clark in connection with sexual assaults of two women on April 13 and 14. Police are asking additional potential victims to come forward. Clark is being held on $1.2 million bail, the Los Angeles Police Department reported. According to detectives, Clark told his alleged victims he had connections in the entertainment industry or that he was a photographer in order to lure them to his Sylmar-area home.

"It is believed that Clark assaulted other victims," an LAPD statement said. "Clark may have used online dating applications or services such as Backpage to lure victims to his home in the Sylmar area, posing as a photographer or convincing victims he was in the entertainment industry."

Clark was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday at the San Fernando courthouse on two counts of forcible oral copulation and one count each of forcible rape and kidnapping to commit another crime.

According to the LAPD, Clark was convicted in 2003 of sexually assaulting two minors, and he served time in prison and was ordered to register as a sex offender.

In 2014, Clark was convicted of child molestation and returned to prison, police said. He was released on parole on March 15, 2017.

Anyone with information on the case was urged to call LAPD Mission Area Sexual Assault detectives at 818-838-9971 or 818-838-9800; 877-LAPD-24-7; or Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.