Former police chief Gordon Anglesea 'had links with paedophiles'

A former police chief accused of historical child sex offences is alleged to have had links with convicted paedophiles.

Gordon Anglesea, 78, is charged with four counts of sexual abuse against two teenage boys in the 1980s when he was a police inspector based in Wrexham.

The former superintendent is accused of two counts of indecent assault and one count of serious sexual assault against the first complainant, and one count of indecent assault against the second complainant.

Both complainants are now in their forties but were aged 14-15 at the time of the alleged abuse.

Mold Crown Court has heard the second complainant was in care as a teenager and living at the Bryn Alyn children's home, run by convicted paedophile John Allen.

He said he was abused by John Allen, who was jailed for life in 2014, and that the abuse sometimes involved other adults when he was "handed around like a handbag."

Complainant Two later named one of these adults as Gordon Anglesea, claiming he indecently assaulted him.

Eleanor Laws QC, prosecuting, said Mr Anglesea told Complainant Two that he had the power to send him away and that he would "never see [his] family again".

The court also heard Mr Anglesea was in charge at an attendance centre for young offenders in Wrexham in the 1980s, and it was here that he is alleged to have assaulted Complainant One.

Ms Laws told the jury of seven men and five women: "The prosecution say Gordon Anglesea was in a position to abuse these two men when they were teenagers as a result of his position he held within the police force at the time, a time when the issue of institutional abuse and abuse by public figures was hard for most of us to believe, or want to believe and harder for complaints to be made."

Gordon Anglesea denies all the charges against him and the trial continues.