Aylesbury beauty salon owner, 60, jailed for sexually assaulting bikini wax customers

Aylesbury beauty salon owner Jeremy Clark, aged 60, is starting a jail sentence for a series of sexual assaults on his bikini wax customers.

Some female clients complained to police after being sexually assaulted by Clark. But he arrogantly told investigators "they had a hell of a good time."

A jury had convicted Clark after hearing evidence from three women complainants but a judge told him he was sure there were many, many more who had not yet come forward.

Grey-haired Clark, medically diagnosed as a narcissist, carried out the sex assaults while giving clients a wax treatment to remove unwanted pubic hair before they embarked on sunshine holidays wearing bikinis.

He carried out the assaults at his salon in Aylesbury over a number of years before his sexual antics were reported to the police.

A judge sitting at Amersham Crown Court heard that Clark “arrogantly” claimed that the women were having “a hell of a good time” and had consented in the moment “but obviously regretted it afterwards”.

However, the three victims said they felt humiliated, violated and angry about what happened. One of the them even left the Aylesbury Spa salon with sticky wax still on her private parts and only half the hair removed.

The court heard that another of the victims said she felt stupid and blamed herself, “wondering what she could have done to prevent it.”

Clark, from High Street in nearby Chesham, Bucks, had offered his waxing and full body massages to women at his legitimate salon and then began sexually assaulting them in a “really subtle way.”

Judge Geoffrey Payne told the defendant: “I am sure this was part of your process to make it feel legitimate.”

He added that calculating Clark made the women feel like they were misinterpreting what had happened and touched them in a way that would lead to no resistance.

Clark, who was convicted of three counts of sexual assault by penetration, appeared at his sentencing hearing at Amersham Crown Court over video link from HMP Bullingdon in Oxfordshire, dressed in a dark grey sweater.

The first victim gave her impact statement to the court in person, saying that the day it happened started off as normal and that she had booked a waxing appointment “out of necessity” the day before going on holiday.

However, when she left the salon after being sexually assaulted, she remembered thinking "what... had just happened?”

She added in her statement: “The fact that he did not plead guilty to this is horrendous. How dare he think that this was okay to do. I think he is sick in the head.

“It was in no way an accident. He thought he could even get away with it at court.”

Another of the victims said she has been “debilitated” by what had happened and suffered a nervous breakdown before the trial at the thought of seeing Clark again and giving evidence.

The jury had earlier been told that Clark was visibly aroused as he leaned over the second woman and that the treatment took an extraordinarily long amount of time, two hours in fact.

The third victim, who went to the salon for a wax, said that Clark had asked to perform oral sex on her mid-way through the treatment. She told the jury "it’s difficult to put into words how disgusted and violated I feel.”

She asked Clark twice when the treatment would be over.

Judge Payne commented: “You had a rather arrogant approach and said her body was giving you a different signal. At the trial you said she was having a hell of a good time.”

Defence counsel, Simon Connolly, told the judge that Clark might have been “utterly deluded”, adding: “He actually believed what he was doing to be acceptable.”

However, Judge Payne retorted: “I’m not sure I agree with that,” explaining that Clark, who has been diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder, had been interviewed under caution by police several times before he was charged with the offences – in effect a warning of what was to come - and still went on to assault women.

He added: “They came in for a wax not… to be penetrated by him.”

Mr Connolly added: “He thought he had consent.”

The defence barrister said that the trial had had a serious affect on his client's mental health and he started refusing food and water to the point where he had to be sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

Sentencing him to seven years behind bars, Judge Payne said: “I am sure it was done for your sexual gratification.”

Clark must also sign onto the Sex Offenders' Register for the rest of his life and has been banned from working with children and vulnerable adults.

After the hearing, the three victims said: “We are very happy with the sentencing and the judge's comments. There are many, many women who were not part of this trial who were also assaulted by him."

One victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons said: “I did not know (that the profession of intimate waxing_ was not regulated (by an authority). You assume when you go to get an intimate beauty treatment done that it is.

“I want to thank the jury for believing us. I was so scared. As a woman you blame yourself and you doubt yourself about what happened. One of the victims said she felt stupid.

“I wanted to be able to speak. It could have been my grandchild, my daughter or a vulnerable woman.”