Teacher Simon Clark who posed as teenager to groom women is jailed

A 46-year-old trainer who posed as an adolescent on-line to invite women for indecent photographs of themselves has been jailed for 8 years.

Simon Clark, from Ellesmore Port, Cheshire, was once a trainer in Flintshire when he pretended to be a 14-year-old boy and despatched messages to 26 women elderly between 10 and 15.

Clark in the past admitted 29 offences together with inciting kids underneath 13 to have interaction in sexual process, and 21 counts of sexual conversation with a kid and making indecent photographs of kids – 26 of that have been in essentially the most severe class.

His offences got here to mild in January 2023, when a mom noticed specific messages from the father-of-two on her 12-year-old daughter’s pc.

Chester Crown Court heard the messages incorporated requests for footage of the girl’s frame, which the mummy reported to North Wales Police.

The account was once within the title of Jamie_jones6968 who claimed to be a schoolboy in England, however the IP deal with of the account which despatched the messages was once traced to Clark.

The court docket heard the case was once then handed to detectives from the Online Child Abuse Investigation Team at Cheshire Police.

Devices had been seized from Clark’s house the place police discovered masses of messages to dozens of ladies – many underneath the age of 16.

He had despatched indecent movies to a couple women and requested for them to ship some again to him.

Cheshire Police praised the complainants for his or her bravery and described Clark as a sexual predator who regardless of being ready of believe, endured his crimes to “satisfy his own warped sexual desires”.

Sentencing him to 8 years, Judge Simon Berkson mentioned his crimes had been “a parent’s worst nightmare” and confirmed “clear grooming of young girls”.

He mentioned it was once “well planned, sophisticated, criminal behaviour”.

As a outcome he mentioned Clark had “lost everything” together with his process, marriage and unsupervised get entry to to his personal babies.

He will face a longer 4 years on licence on the finish of his sentence.

An NSPCC spokesperson mentioned: “As a teacher Clark had a duty to keep children safe.

“Instead for seven years he posed as a teenage boy on a social media platform, the use of his faux profile to focus on and groom younger women earlier than persuading them to ship bare photographs of themselves.

“This kind of sexual abuse can have a devasting impact on the victims and it is vital all the children involved in this case have access to the support they need to move forwards with their lives.

“This case additionally highlights the desire for social media websites to be doing a lot more to offer protection to kids and save you offenders like Clark from the use of their platforms to hold out their crimes.”