Gordon Anglesea, 79, faces four child sex abuse charges. Anglesea is on trial at Mold Crown Court
BY ELWYN ROBERTS
A former North Wales Police superintendent told investigators he “strongly denied” child sex abuse allegations made against him.
Jurors trying retired police chief Gordon Anglesea at Mold Crown Court heard junior prosecuting barrister Catherine Donnelly and National Crime Agency officer Calvin Martin read out the first interview the 79-year-old gave when arrested in 2013.
Having been detained and cautioned on an allegation of indecent assault and a serious sexual assault Anglesea replied: “I strongly deny these allegations.”
At the time of the alleged offences Anglesea was a police inspector based in Wrexham , who ran a Home Office attendance centre where tearaway teenage boys would be given a military-style regime.
He is now standing trial accused of four child sexual abuse allegations dating back to the 1980s, which he denies.
During his interview three years ago following his arrest Anglesea explained how he began his career as a police officer in Cheshire in 1967 but later resigned following a marriage breakdown.
He then went on to join Flintshire Constabulary, he said, before later transferring to Wrexham in 1976 where he married his present wife.
In 1978, he said, he became responsible for the Bromfield area outside Wrexham, which included the Bryn Estyn children’s home, while in the same year he set up the attendance centre where he oversaw the work of five staff.
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Pocket books 'destroyed'
Eight years later, in 1986, he attained the rank of chief inspector before becoming a superintendent in 1988 in Colwyn Bay. He said he retired in 1991.
Outlining his responsibilities in Wrexham he said inspectors would caution people at the police station but explained how the principal of Bryn Estyn asked the force whether, due to staff shortages, officers could attend the home to administer cautions.
The defendant, in his interview, said he did not think he had visited the home on more than six occasions. He said the visits were entered in his police pocket book but added he had been told the books had gone missing and he believed they had been destroyed.
When he cautioned children members of staff were always present, he told the interviewers.
Anglesea also said he had been to Bryn Estyn for a Christmas dinner on one occasion.
He explained how he was deeply involved in the church and had five children while in the late 1980s he and his wife had a daughter who later died after a heart operation.
Anglesea, 79, from Colwyn Bay, denies a count of indecent assault against one complainant and two other counts of indecent assault and one count of a serious sexual offence against another boy, with both complainants aged 14 or 15 at the time of the alleged offences, between 1982 and 1987.
The trial is due to continue on Monday.
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