He was a highly respected high school teacher - but harboured a vile secret

North Wales Live

5 days ago

Simon Clark was a highly respected French teacher at the Alun School in Mold. The 46-year-old was head of department at the Flintshire school, with a family at home.
But he was harbouring a sickening secret. Clark was posing as a teenage boy on Snapchat in order to entice girls into sending him sexual images. Chester Crown Court heard he preyed on 26 youngsters, aged as young as 10.
The father-of-two's wife has since divorced him, his career is now over, and he is now behind bars. A judge today sentenced him to eight years in prison, with a further four years to be spent on licence.
The paedophile teacher kept his head bowed as he was jailed. The court today [Friday] heard Clark pretended to be a 14-year-old boy using a fake Snapchat profile with the name 'Jamie_jones6968' to send hundreds of explicit messages to girl, persuading some to send sexual images in return. You can sign up for all the latest court stories here
Judge Simon Berkson said he had no doubt his offending would have continued if he hadn't been stopped after the mother of one victim noticed an unknown man had asked her daughter for a naked photograph and reported him to police. It was every parent's nightmare, he said.
The judge said the truth must have come as a "terrible shock" to the victims and their families. He branded Clark a "dangerous" offender.
He gave Clark an eight year term, with four more years on licence on his release, for inciting a child under 13 to engage in penetrative sexual activity. The remaining jail terms, which are all concurrent, range from 40 months to four months.
Clark also got concurrent sentences of eight months, four months and four weeks for making indecent images in categories A, B and C.
The judge told the defendant he represented a 'significant risk' to children. Judge Berkson said: 'It is, of course, every parent's worst nightmare, this sort of thing happening to their children.
'Many of the offences involve sexual communication, some involving inciting children to engage in sexual activity. This was well planned and sophisticated criminal behaviour.
'You clearly have a sexual interest from the sexual abuse of children and gain sexual gratification from it.'
Clark's barrister Jeremy Rawson referred to a "black side" to him. He said: "He has lost everything as a result of this.
"There's a black side to his character which is unrestrained and he gave into it and he bitterly regrets it." He went on: "It's a terribly sad case. It's sad for those children whose trust has been abused. It's sad for the parents of those children whose trust has been marred by this man.
"On the other side of the coin, this is a man who had a future, who had responsibilities and who had an education." When he goes into custody then comes out he will have to "start again from nothing".
The case against Clark began in January 2023 when police in North Wales were contacted by the concerned parent. Initial enquires suggested that the suspect was living in the Cheshire area, so the case was passed to Cheshire Police.
An investigation was subsequently launched by detectives from the Online Child Abuse Investigation Team (OCAIT) at Cheshire Police and during their enquiries officers established that Clark was the suspect in the case.
A warrant was conducted at his home in May 2023 and four devices were seized from the address. During subsequent analysis officers discovered that Clark had been posing as a teenager using the Snapchat account.
Following the sentencing, Detective Constable Louise Murphy and Detective Constable Megan Griffiths, who led the investigation, said: 'Firstly, we would like to praise the victims in this case for the bravery and courage that they have shown throughout this investigation.
"Clark was a teacher, he held a position of trust, and the messages we recovered clearly showed that he was well aware that his victims were all under the age of 16, but despite this he continued his crimes in order to satisfy his own warped sexual desires.
'It was apparent throughout the investigation that Clark is a sexual predator who preyed on young girls, with no regard for the effects his actions would have on the victims or their families.
'While they will never be able to forget what he did, we hope the sentence handed to Clark will provide the victims with some closure and allow them to move forward with their lives.'
Clark admitted 29 charges in total. He admitted one count of inciting a child under 13 to engage in penetrative sexual activity, two of inciting a child under 13 to engage in non-penetrative sexual activity and two counts of inciting a child under 16 to engage in non-penetrative sexual activity.
He also admitted 21 counts of engaging in sexual communication with a child under 16, making 26 indecent images of children of Category A, making 29 indecent images of children of Category B and making 81 indecent images of children of Category C.