Former Rainbow Rooms charity boss Will Clark secretly filmed children in Salisbury public toilets and downloaded almost 1,000 indecent images

William (Will) John Clark, 45, used spy cameras to film children and adults using public toilets in The Old George Mall, Salisbury, for sexual gratification.

And he secretly filmed young, gay men in the bathroom of his home.

Police found hundreds of indecent images of children as young as seven on his computer, Salisbury Crown Court heard today.

He also lied to the charity commission about his history of child sex offences when he set up the Rainbow Rooms in the city in 2009.

Once heralded a local hero, Clark has today been jailed for 28 months.

The court was told Clark had downloaded 943 indecent images and videos of children as young as seven between 2008 and 2014, including 60 of the most serious, category A, images.

Some of the images were "sadistic" featuring children who were "clearly distressed and suffering", the court heard.

Judge Alan Large said: "Your motivation was, in my judgment, a continued sexual interest in children. No other explanation is tenable."

In 2009, Clark set up Rainbow Rooms, a charity supporting young gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender people in Salisbury and the surrounding area.

He lied to the charity commission, saying he had completed an enhanced background check.

But he failed to disclose his record of child sex offences, which included the indecent assault of a nine-year-old boy.

The judge said: "You knew full well if you had made proper declaration of your previous convictions you would not have been allowed to set up the charity."

He added: "I accept that the primary motivation was to do good, but I have no doubt that as a by-product you knew it would bring you into contact with young, gay men, some of whom were bound to be needy."

The judge said the victims of Clark's secret filming felt "betrayal and anger" because of what he had done to them, and it had caused "significant emotional difficulties".

Police also recovered videos of 40 men and boys recorded through a hole in the wall of the male toilets of The Old George Mall, with a view of the urinals.

The videos focused on men's private parts, but the camera would move to record the faces of younger boys using the toilets.

(It was mistakenly said in court that he filmed men in the toilets at Salisbury coach station).

The court heard Clark had felt a "sense of excitement and thrill" at the risk of being caught filming.

Clark, who wore a light-grey suit and sported a beard as he sat in the dock, was given full credit for his guilty pleas.

The judge said: "This cocktail of offences is so serious, an immediate custodial sentence must be passed."

He sentenced Clark to 12 months for the child abuse images, four months for lying to the charity commission (to be served concurrently), 10 months for filming people in his home, and six months for filming people in the public toilets.

His total sentence was 28 months, but the judge told Clark he would serve 14.

Clark was also sentenced under a court martial for four historic sex offences he committed at the age of 14 and 17 while living on army bases in Germany, while his father was a serving in the military.

He was convicted of indecent assault and gross indecency against boys a few years younger than him at the time.

For these offences, he was given a 12-month total sentence, to be served concurrently with his civilian court sentence.

Defending Clark, Michael Butt said his client had been sexually abused himself as a child of six or seven in Northern Ireland, which had influenced, if not destroyed his life afterwards.

He said his abuse “undoubtedly” led him to commit the historic sex offences in Germany in the early 90s.

“This has been a very unhappy history indeed,” he said.

“Although [Clark] is an offender in many respects, he is also very much a victim.”

Mr Butt said it would be hard to point to any serious, long-lasting harm to either of the victims of Clark’s historic sex crimes.

Referring to Clark’s more recent crimes, Butt said there were no complaints about his client’s behaviour towards any of the young people “under his wing” at Rainbow Rooms.

He said: “It would be completely wrong to think of this man founding the charity as a way of gaining access to young persons for him to abuse.

“With his own desperate history and circumstances in mind, he wanted to give something back to the community.”

He added that Clark’s motives were “entirely altruistic” and the charity “did quite a lot of good for quite a lot of people”.

In 2013, Clark was falsely accused of raping a 26-year-old man who was pretending to be a boy of 17.

After the man, Shane Peake, was jailed for perverting the course of justice, Clark said the incident had "destroyed his life" and tried to kill himself.

In 2011, Clark won Local Hero award for his charity work in Salisbury with the Rainbow Rooms.

Temporary Detective Chief Inspector Jeremy Carter, who led the investigation, said: “Today's sentencing is the result of an extensive and thorough investigation.

“Downloading and viewing indecent images and videos of children may seem like a victimless crime, but the reality is that in each and every case a child has been abused in their making and people who download and view child abuse images are fuelling the further abuse of children globally, by adding to the demand for such harmful footage.

“The content of the images found on Clark’s computer can only be described as abhorrent and the sentence imposed today reflects the seriousness of this crime.

"Clark’s list of offences did not stop there he used covert cameras to prey on unsuspecting men in a public toilet for his own gratification.

"He also deceived a large number of people who genuinely wanted to help the young LGBT community in Salisbury. The impact of Clark’s actions will be significant and I hope he can now acknowledge the extent of the harm he has caused."

Following the sentence, Simon Jones, Senior Crown Advocate for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said: “As a convicted sex offender, William Clark knew of the obvious concerns about him working with children but this did not stop him establishing and running a charity whose focus was to help people within the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, which included a section of young people.

"In doing so, he deliberatly omitted to disclose his previous child sexual offence convictions. 

“Whilst running the charity he downloaded and possessed a large quantity of indecent images of children.

“He also commited offences of voyeurism, which included covertly filming innocent members of the public in extreme circumstances of privacy.

“We hope that with this conviction, the young adults victims in this case will now be able to move on with their lives.”

A spokesman for the Charity Comission said: “We welcome the sentencing of Mr Clark, who was formerly a trustee and chief executive of the charity Rainbow Rooms.

"The charity was subject to a Charity Commission statutory inquiry until it was removed from the register in March 2014, when the charity ceased to exist.

"We have worked closely with the police on this case.

"This sentence demonstrates how seriously the courts take cases where individuals have given false information to the commission or have abused their positions in charities.

"Now that the criminal case has concluded we will shortly be publishing a report of our inquiry.

“We hope that the Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Bill passes into law as soon as possible.

"The new powers contained within the Bill, which we have long argued for, will mean that people with convictions for certain sexual offences, including those against children, are automatically disqualified from serving as charity trustees, which is currently not the case.”

Clark moved from Salisbury to Pell Lane, Ryde, Isle-of-Wight.

He previously admitted nine offences relating to indecent images of children, four voyeurism offences and one charge in relation to supplying false or misleading information to the Charity Commission.