A former police superintendent who was jailed last month for sexually abusing vulnerable boys in the 1980s has died.
Gordon Anglesea, 79, was sentenced to 12 years for the abuse, which took place at a Home Office attendance centre for young offenders and at a children’s home.
He was the highest-profile offender brought to justice through the National Crime Agency’s Operation Pallial, which has been investigating allegations of widespread and organised child abuse in north Wales.
His solicitor, Jonathan Wall, from Burton Copeland, said: “I have had confirmation from his family that he passed away peacefully this morning in hospital. I know he had been in hospital for a few days.”
Anglesea was found guilty of indecent assaults on two boys aged 14 and 15. One said he had been assaulted by Anglesea in the shower and a changing room at the attendance centre he ran in Wrexham. Such centres were set up by the Home Office to provide an alternative to custody for youths, and provided physical training and woodwork lessons.
The second victim lived at a children’s home called Bryn Estyn in Wrexham. He claimed he was taken from there to various addresses and passed around “like a handbag” to men including Anglesea.
The judge Geraint Walters told Anglesea he had “grossly abused the trust placed in you. The consequences for them have been profound, indeed life-changing.”
Anglesea continued to insist on his innocence. His barrister, Tania Griffiths QC, said the verdicts were “perverse” and unsuccessfully applied for her client to be freed on bail while he sought an appeal.
Anglesea had faced claims for a quarter of a century that he preyed on young boys, and in the mid-90s was awarded £375,000 in damages after successfully suing news organisations including the Observer that had linked him to abuse.
In victims’ impact statements put before the court in north Wales before his sentencing, one victim said: “Anglesea was the worst. He was the man I feared most.”
A second said he had several times tried to kill himself because he couldn’t live with the memories of what “that man” had done to him.
North Wales police have apologised for Anglesea’s actions.
