Former police officer Gordon Anglesea has been found guilty of four indecent assaults
A former North Wales Police chief has been found guilty of indecently assaulting two teenage boys in the 1980s.
79-year-old Gordon Anglesea was found guilty of three counts of indecent assault against one teenager and one of indecent assault against another teen, both of which took place during his time as a police inspector based in Wrexham.
The jury found him not guilty of an alternative charge of serious sexual assault.
During the six week trial at Mold Crown Court, prosecutor Eleanor Laws QC said Anglesea used his position within the police force to abuse the two boys.
One of the complainants was in care as a teenager and lived at the Bryn Alyn children’s home, which was run by convicted paedophile John Allen.
The complainant, who is now in his 40s, told the jury he was abused by Allen - who was jailed for life in 2014 - and that he was ‘handed around like a handbag’ among other men.
One of those men he named as Gordon Anglesea, who he said indecently assaulted him.
The court heard Anglesea told the boy he had the power to send him away and he would “never see his family again.”
During the 1980s, Anglesea was in charge of an attendance centre for young offenders based in Wrexham, where those who had been in trouble with the police would be sent for exercise and woodwork classes.
It was there he indecently assaulted the second complainant, after holding him back in the showers following a running race.
The complainant told the court the attacks may not have lasted long, but their effect has lasted a lifetime and Anglesea had ruined his life.
The jury also heard evidence from a former colleague of Anglesea who said he had not heard of any incidents of abuse at the centre.
But he admitted that despite it being protocol for cautions to be issued at a police station, Anglesea had visited two different care homes on regular basis to issue them and it became “almost the norm.”
Throughout the trial Anglesea denied any wrongdoing, claiming he was the victim of an ‘abuse conspiracy’ so people could claim compensation.
He told the court that since the Jimmy Savile scandal, there had been a wave of complaints, which he claimed was down to officers from the police investigation ‘’re-visiting boys.’
But today, the jury of six men and five women rejected his defence.
Anglesea will be sentenced at a later date.
In a statement, Ed Beltrami - Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS Wales - said Anglesea "abused a position of power and authority in order to prey on very young and vulnerable victims".