April 2007 Technician jailed for child sex assaults A MIDDLE-AGED computer technician who used to work at Brunel University was jailed for three years on Tuesday for the repeated sexual abuse of two young sisters. At an earlier trial at Isleworth Crown Court Colin Clark, 55, of Norwood Close, Southall, was found guilty by a jury of eight charges of indecent assault and one of indecency with a child relating to the girls when they were aged between seven and 14, and ten and 13. Now both grown-up, one with children of her own, they told the trial how Clark would constantly touch them when they were small – the older one by sitting her on his knee while reading to her and occasionally when she was in bed. The younger girl complained of his “pushing her up against a wall and pressing himself to her”, prosecutor Rosie Burns told the jury. The assaults happened when the father-of-three visited the girls’ family, sometimes on holiday in the west country. When the girls finally told their mother, she did her best to “brush it under the carpet” because of the effect it would have on his family, said counsel. Clark was not arrested and questioned until March last year when he denied everything except two minor incidents with the younger girl which, he agreed, were “inappropriate”. He denied touching either of them in any sexual way. His counsel, Christopher Drew, said he had already been punished to some extent, having been “sent to Coventry by his family”. “He does express remorse for the damage he has done. This is a tragedy and for that he feels remorse. “He has had great difficulty accepting the jury’s verdicts,” he said. Jailing him, Judge Hezlett Colgan said: “The aggravating features of this case are clearly the ages of the girls at the time and your position of trust in relation to them. “Both young women are still suffering the after effects of what you did to them.” Clark must sign onto the sex offenders’ register for life and is banned from ever working with children.