Professional clown sentenced to ten years in prison for kidnap and rape of 12-year-old when he was in full makeup and costume

A professional clown has been sentenced to spend ten years in prison for kidnapping and raping a 12-year-old girl while he was in his costume and full makeup.

Jose Guadalupe Jimenez, whose clown name is ‘El Tin Larin’, from Los Angeles, pleaded guilty to one felony count of a lewd act upon a child under 14 and one felony count of a forcible lewd act on a child under 14.

The sex attack happened ten years ago in Fullerton when he took the girl to a school car park, raped her, took her to a nearby motel and molested her before she managed to escape.

Guilty: Jose Guadalupe Jimenez, who works as a professional clown, was arrested for raping a 12-year-old girl while dressed in full make-up and his clown outfit, right, after police linked his DNA to the crime



He has been a clown for around nine years and police believe there may be other victims he has assaulted

The 41-year-old was linked to the crime which took place in Orange County, California in 2002 through DNA after he was arrested in 2010 for an unrelated crime, police said.

Orange County district attorney's office told the LA Times : 'He will be required to register as a sex offender for life. The negotiated plea was a result of the totality of the evidence of the case, availability of witnesses and wishes of the victim.

His arrest in 2010 on Newport Beach was on suspicion of physically abusing a child, leading police to believe there may be other child victims.

Fullerton Police Sgt Andrew Goodrich explained why the rape case had gone cold.

He said: 'The problem was, the only description we had was "a clown".

‘We had DNA from the sexual assault and we put it in the system.’

Goodrich said detectives were asking for the public's help in identifying possible additional victims of Jimenez, who for the past ten years has performed as a clown at parties, mostly in Latino communities.

‘Who knows how many other possible victims there might be,’ he said.