Clarke was cleared of child sex charges

SRI LANKAN authorities said yesterday British-born sci-fi writer Arthur C Clarke had been cleared of decade-old paedophile allegations before his death last week.

Clarke was buried on Saturday in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since 1956. Some obituary writers have resurrected 1998 accusations that he had sex with young boys in his adopted country.

But the National Child Protection Authority chief, Jagath Wellawatte, said there was no case against the author

“We had no case against Clarke and no one had come forward to say they were abused by him,” Wellawatte said.

In 1998 The Presidential Task Force on the Prevention of Child Abuse, had initiated an investigation into Clarke’s conduct with the help of Interpol. Police then spent two-and-a-half hours recording a statement from Clarke, but no charges were brought against him.

Clarke, who died last Wednesday aged 90, vehemently denied the allegations and threatened to sue the British newspaper that made the charges following a “sting operation” by two undercover reporters.

Clarke said at the time that he was “disturbed to discover that there has been a long-standing conspiracy in Sri Lanka to discredit him... involving activists associated with child welfare organisations”.

The accusations surfaced while Britain’s Prince Charles was visiting Colombo and was due to confer a knighthood on Clarke. The investiture was eventually held two years later.

There were no official condolences from London, and the High Commission or embassy in Colombo on Clarke’s death, which only briefly noted Clarke’s death with “sadness” on its website.

“Even in death, the sage of science fiction could not shake off the accusations of paedophilia levelled against him,” The Times wrote .

Children’s rights groups in Sri Lanka, which were quite vocal when the allegations were first levelled, have largely remained silent following Clarke’s death.

“It is a cultural practice here that we don’t speak ill of the dead,” said Sunanda Deshapriya, director of the private Centre for Policy Alternatives think tank.