A retired police superintendent sexually abused two boys in the 1980s when he ran an attendance centre for young offenders, a jury has been told.

Gordon Anglesea, 78, a former officer with North Wales police, abused the boys when they were 14 or 15, the court heard.

The first alleged victim claims that he was assaulted by Anglesea in the showers and a changing room of the centre in Wrexham, north Wales.

Jurors were told that the second claims that he was handed around “like a handbag” by a convicted paedophile called John Allen, who owned a Wrexham children’s home.

Anglesea, from Colwyn Bay, north Wales, denies four sexual assaults between 1982 and 1987. His defence will be that the allegations are lies and inventions.

Eleanor Laws QC, prosecuting, told Mold crown court: “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.”

Attendance centres were set up by the Home Office to provide an alternative to custody for young people and included physical training and woodwork. The Wrexham centre opened on Saturday afternoons.

One of the complainants, who described the centre as a “naughty boy school” and had been sent there for “petty” crimes, made a complaint against Anglesea years later after receiving counselling.

He said his attacker was a “big fella” and added: “You did what you were told because he was the boss ... He used to hit everyone around the head. He was a powerful person. He’s wrecked my life.”

The court was told that Anglesea would make the youngsters do naked sit-ups and squat thrusts, then loiter around the showers at the attendance centre “with a smirk on his face”.

The second complainant lived at a children’s home in Wrexham run by Allen. He claims that he was taken to various addresses and passed around to men including Anglesea.

Laws said the second alleged victim had given an account of how, on one occasion, Allen took him to a house where he was abused by a male that he later named as Anglesea.

The alleged victim claimed that Anglesea had said he had the power to send the boy away and ensure he would “never see his family again,” the court was told. Anglesea is said to have called him scum. The teenager did not complain because he was frightened of the man’s power and connections.

Laws said the prosecution would call three other people to give evidence regarding the connection between Anglesea, Allen and another convicted paedophile.

When he was arrested in December 2013, Anglesea strenuously denied the allegations and having any connection to sex offenders.

“The prosecution say that Gordon Anglesea knew he was safe,” Laws said. “Who would believe them against him, at that time a high ranking police officer? And that of course is his defence now: look at who they are, how can you believe them?”

When he was interviewed, Anglesea told police that he used to attend the Bryn Alyn children’s home, which Allen ran, to administer cautions to boys.



The court was told that Anglesea started his police career in Cheshire, before being transferred to Wrexham in 1976, where he was promoted to inspector and ran the attendance centre between 1979 and 1987, before retiring as a superintendent in 1991.

The trial continues.