Former Police Chief And Convicted Child Abuser, Gordon Anglesea Dies

A former North Wales Police superintendent who was jailed for sexually abusing young boys has died.

Gordon Anglesea, 79, of Old Colwyn, Conwy county, was jailed for 12 years for historical offences in November.

He abused two boys between 1982 and 1987 when they were 14 or 15, his trial at Mold Crown Court heard.

Anglesea died in hospital on Thursday, his solicitor Jonathan Wall, of Manchester-based Burton Copeland, said.

In November, the retired police officer lodged an appeal against his convictions for three indecent assaults on one boy and one indecent assault on another.

BBC News

Op Pallial: Gordon Anglesea Charged

Former Police Superintendent Gordon Anglesea

This is quite a significant development. Gordon Anglesea has been charged with 5 offences against 3 boys.

For anyone unaware, Anglesea successfully sued for libel in 1994 after Private Eye, the Independent on Sunday and HTV (Harlech Television/ITV Wales) published allegations. There’ll be a few ‘bruised’ journalists watching this with interest.

An ex-police chief who was arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing young boys has been charged.

Retired North Wales superintendent Gordon Anglesea, 77, was arrested in 2013 and bailed, then re-bailed in January this year by detectives from Operation Pallial, a National Crime Investigation into claims of historical sex offences in the North Wales care home system.

Today, he was charged with five sexual offences against three boys between 1979 and 1987.

A spokesman for the National Crime Agency said: “A 78-year-old man from North Wales has been charged with five offences of sexual assault and two offences of buggery, following an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

“Gordon Anglesea, from Old Colwyn, is alleged to have abused three boys between 1979 and 1987, when they were between 11 and 16 years old.

“He was arrested by officers from Operation Pallial in December 2013. Pallial is an independent NCA investigation into recent allegations of past sexual abuse in the care system in North Wales, being delivered by the NCA at the request of Mark Polin, the Chief Constable of North Wales Police.

Daily Post

My Story, Bryn Alyn Survivor Dave Harries

Written by @dharries056

My name is David Harries and I am 38 years old and a survivor of child abuse. When I was 5/6 I used to climb out of my bedroom window and run away because of the abuse I was getting off my drunk father. I told my primary teachers of all the nasty things my dad was doing, it was all physical abuse very violent and very cruel/wicked. Social services were aware but never intervened for another three and half years which led me to get more damaged.

Just before my tenth birthday I was given a beating by my father for something I never did. Of course I ran away. The next day being hungry I stole a pack of three Mars bars and I got caught and when the police officer grabbed my arm I winched. Upon getting into the police station the officer made the Sergeant aware of my winching. A doctor looked me over and I had a bruise the the whole of my back. That’s when social services got involved. That’s when I was taken away from my mum.

The weird thing is how the social worker made ‘care’ sound comfortable and safe and creepily inviting. I have never forgot that day Whitney Houston’s track One Moment In Time was on the radio and my mum was broken in floods of tears and my dad never said a word(coward). The social worker took me to Elmfield house in Rochdale. I was put in a big bedroom with a big antique bed in it and I curled up and I fell asleep. Nobody checked to see if I was OK till about half past eight in the morning. Coming out of that room was the scariest moment. Eleven years of age and every single person around me was a stranger. They use to give you a clipper card to get to school and I used mine to go on a bus journey all over Manchester. When I got back I was frog marched into the office. The manager told the member of staff to leave and he belted me right around my head hard then slapped me across my back and bum. The place has been knocked down now plus the night watchman use to be on the girls landing all the time. He use to hit you in the private bits if he caught you out of your room, I can still remember in detail the inside of that place.

Read The Rest Of David’s Story On Darren Laverty’s Blog

Justice

From Fighting Back

Justice!!!!

Just some of the survivors of John Allen’s regime following the sentence in Mold Crown Court today.

 

 

 

Police Failures ? John Allen, Bryn Alyn, And Pallial

John Allen

 

John Allen was sentenced to life in prison today. Here. Personally, I’m left asking more questions than I was before Operation Pallial arrested him. I’d like to put these questions to the officers in charge of the many previous police investigations. I’m not alone when it comes to wanting answers. I know many ex-residents in the care systems that are left with more questions than answers.

I was in Cardiff the day Waterhouse’s report Lost in Care was released to the public. The atmosphere was filled with excitement and relief. I was with friends and we celebrated being vindicated, being believed and being heard. Because that’s how we felt. Or did we? Most of the day was spent at HTV HQ among many staff who had been involved in the abuse scandal for the past 15/20 years. It’s my belief that many of the staff were as relieved as we were. They too considered themselves vindicated and proven to be telling the truth. Maybe we were carried along more with the ambiance of the environment rather than with our own internalised feelings.

The following weeks were an anti-climax. Dullness appeared. The sky looked grey most of the time. I couldn’t fathom out why. I didn’t bother to examine my thinking. I was studying at university at the time and had things to be getting on with. The next ten years were lived as any other member of society lives. Work, rest and play. All my time and energy was devoted to building a secure family environment within which my children could grow up safely and with solid foundations. It’s ongoing.

I’d moved on. I existed as a graduate, a father and a husband and employee. Residential care abuses were a thing of the past. I still bumped into others who were in care with me and we used mention this and that but I wasn’t the “spearhead” of victims I used to be.

More at DarrenLaverty.blogspot

John Allen Guilty On 26 Counts Of Child Abuse

John Allen

12 other counts are still being considered by the jury. At 73 years old I doubt John Allen will be free to walk the streets ever again. I hope that is some small consolation to his many victims.

A former children’s homes boss has been found guilty of 26 charges of sexually abusing youngsters in Wrexham.

John Allen, 73, of Needham Market, Suffolk, denies 40 counts of sexual abuse against 19 boys and one girl in the late 1960s up to the early 1990s.

The jury in his trial at Mold Crown Court started their deliberations last Wednesday. The trial began in October.

Allen has been found not guilty of two verdicts. The jury is still deliberating on 12 charges.

The case was adjourned for the rest of Wednesday.

The former hotelier and pop band manager ran 11 homes in the Wrexham area known as the Bryn Alyn Community.

BBC News

Operation Orarian Investigation Into North Wales Police

 

Orarian – From Latin orarius, from ora coast. Adjective – Of or pertaining to a coast. Noun – An inhabitant of a coast.

Which is a suitable name given that the source of this information is Darren Laverty who spends his down time beach combing the Angelsey coast for driftwood. It might be worth following him on Twitter if you’re not already.

Operation Orarian is a new police investigation into North Wales Police (NWP) and others which is investigating allegations that past investigations by NWP into child abuse at North Wales care homes during the 1980s and early 1990s were illegally perverted.

It is separate and distinct from another investigation into the conduct of three police forces, including NWP, in relation to Operation Spade which is more recent. You can find information on that HERE

Darren Laverty released a statement on his blog on Wednesday. It would seem that as a former resident of Bryn Estyn, Darren would likely have been asked about issues regarding the investigation. I’m sure others were asked also.

I can confirm that IPCC have launched a criminal investigation into the potential actions of North Wales Police during the investigations into child abuse in the late 1980’s early 1990’s. Serving and non serving officers are under scrutiny. In addition they will investigate the potential criminal activities of a number of senior council officials who ruled the roost at Gwynedd county council/social services. It’s been estimated to take a minimum of 6 months.

Operation Orarian will be overseen by the IPCC and will have its own Head of Review, thought to be Martin Lloyd Evans. DI Tim Evans will head the team from SOUTH WALES.

Darren Laverty

Anyone who has looked at past investigations into child abuse in care homes will have been left with an extremely uncomfortable feeling. At the least that investigations were not as thorough as the general public might reasonably have expected, at worst, that there might have been some form of collusion or corruption which prevented these police investigations from getting to the truth.

The very fact that, in the case of North Wales care homes, so many new charges have been made by Operation Pallial against suspects, and that so many witnesses have come forward to Pallial alleging unresolved crimes, bears out the need for this new  independent criminal investigation.

I personally consider Operation Orarian to be an extremely significant police investigation and I’ll be watching developments very closely.

The message should be clear. It doesn’t matter who you are or how protected you thought you were, there will be no hiding place.

Op Pallial: 5 More Charged.

Six men will appear at Mold Magistrates Court next week to face a total of 27 charges of serious sexual assault, following an investigation by the National Crime Agency.

Five men have been charged with a total of 26 offences of indecent assault, buggery and attempted buggery and have been bailed to appear at Mold on June 12.

A sixth man, from the Wrexham area, has been summonsed to appear at the same court hearing, charged with one offence of indecent assault against one of the same two boys.

The offences are alleged to have taken place against two boys aged under 16, between 1981 and 1986.

All the offences are believed to have been committed at addresses in the Wrexham area.

These charges arise from the National Crime Agency’s Operation Pallial, an investigation into recent allegations of historical abuse in the care system in North Wales.

The five men charged and bailed are:

Mark Granger, (aka Gary Cooke), aged 63, from Leicester. He is charged with three counts of indecent assault and two counts of buggery.

Marc Roy Norry, aged 54, from Connah’s Quay, North Wales. He is charged with four counts of indecent assault, one count of buggery and one count of attempted buggery.

David Lightfoot, aged 71, from Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, has been charged with three counts of indecent assault, one count of buggery and one count of attempted buggery.

Edward Huxley, aged 69, from Maidenhead, Berkshire, has been charged with two counts of indecent assault.

Keith Stokes, aged 61, from Farndon, Chester, has been charged with three counts of indecent assault, three counts of gross indecency, one count of buggery and one count of attempted buggery.

A 62-year-old man from Wrexham has been summonsed to appear at the same court to face one count of indecent assault. This man will be named following his court appearance.

A total of nine people have so far been charged with offences by Operation Pallial.

NCA

Peter Steen Charged By Operation Pallial

Given that a good friend of mine has had some experience with this particular ‘gentleman’, I’m hardly impartial and I’ll say no more.

Except GOOD!

 

A third man has been charged by Operation Pallial.

Peter Steen was today charged with numerous offences of violence against children in his care, during his time working for Bryn Alyn Community.
He is accused of Violent Crimes against Children in;

Bryntirion Hall
Pentre Saeson Hall
Gatewen Hall
Bryn Alyn Hall

More at Fighting Back

Op Pallial: Richard Dafydd Vevar Charged With Two Offences Of Indecent Assault

Anyone have a photo ?

A 62-year-old man from Wrexham North Wales, has been charged with two offences of indecent assault following an investigation by the National Crime Agency.

Richard Daffyd Vevar has been charged with two offences of indecent assault against a boy aged between 13 and 16. The offences are alleged to have taken place between 1986 and 1989.

He has been bailed to appear at Dolgellau Magistrates on June 2 2014. 

Operation Pallial is an investigation being conducted by the National Crime Agency (NCA) into recent allegations of historical abuse in the care system in North Wales.

National Crime Agency

Operation Pallial: 19th Arrest

 

Officers from the National Crime Agency today arrested a 71-year-old man from the Ellesmere Port area of Cheshire, on suspicion of sexual assaults against two boys.

The arrest forms part of Operation Pallial, an investigation led by NCA Director General Keith Bristow into recent allegations of historical sexual abuse in the care system in North Wales.

The offences are alleged to have taken place against two boys, between 1977 and 1985, when they were aged between 13 and 15 years old.

The man has been taken to a local police station where he will be interviewed by NCA officers from Operation Pallial.

Wrexham.com

Silent To The Grave.

SIR RONALD WATERHOUSE
The retired High Court judge chaired the £14 million North Wales Child Abuse Tribunal. In 2000 he was told of serious allegations that the Tribunal had failed to do its job properly. Whatever he felt about those allegations, he took to his grave …

IN OCTOBER 2000 Sir Ronald Waterhouse agreed to meet Paddy French, then a journalist with the Wales This Week current affairs programme at HTV in Cardiff.

French had asked for an off-the-record briefing from the retired judge but did not specify the issues he wanted to talk about.

The meeting took place at Sir Ronald’s home in the village of Walford near Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire.

Sir Ronald agreed to the discussion, as he put it later, because he wanted “to ease your labours as far as possible in a friendly fashion by providing answers to any queries that you had that could be dealt with quickly.”

But French had not come for a friendly chat — instead over the course of the three-hour meeting he delivered a detailed critique of the work of the Tribunal.

The following year French sent Sir Ronald a long letter summarising the conversation.

Sir Ronald replied the next day.

This article is based on this correspondence.

The complete article can be found at Rebecca Television

 

Rebecca Television covers the whole of the UK but includes a built-in bias to issues concerning Wales. It’s independent, does not accept advertising or sponsorship and depends on donations to cover its costs.

The Editor is the Irish-born journalist Paddy French. He was a current affairs producer on the ITV Wales current affairs strand Wales This Week for nearly ten years.

Op Pallial: 18th Arrest

 

A 76-year-old man was today arrested on suspicion of physical and sexual assaults in an investigation into historic allegations of child abuse in the North Wales care system.

The man, who has not been named, was from Old Colwyn and has been taken to a local police station where he will be interviewed by National Crime Agency (NCA) officers.

The offences are alleged to have taken place against seven boys, between 1975 and 1983, when they were aged between 8 and 16 years old.

It forms part of Operation Pallial, an investigation into recent allegations of historical sexual abuse in the care system in North Wales, led by NCA Director General Keith Bristow.

An NCA spokesman  said: “No further information about the arrest, or the specific nature of the offences being put to him, will be provided.

Daily Post

Op Pallial: 16th Arrest.

Many thanks to Norma Moore on Twitter for helping me plug the gap in the Op Pallial arrests.

Officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) today (Tuesday November 26) arrested a man from Cardiff, South Wales, on suspicion of child cruelty, gross indecency and assault.

The arrest forms part of Operation Pallial, an investigation into recent allegations of historical sexual abuse in the care system in North Wales, which is led by NCA Director General Keith Bristow.

A 65 year old man was arrested on suspicion of child cruelty, gross indecency and assault. The offences are alleged to have taken place against three boys, between 1970 and 1981, when they were aged between 10 and 12 years old.

The man has been taken to a local police station where he will be interviewed by NCA officers from Operation Pallial.

Today’s arrest is the sixteenth conducted by members of Operation Pallial. To date, one person has been charged with a large number of serious sexual offences.

National Crime Agency

Op Pallial: 17th Arrest

Many thanks to Kaz @ Fighting Back for pointing this out to me.

The article states 17th arrest and so I guess I’ve missed the 16th. If someone knows about Pallial #16 could you let me know ?

A 69-year-old man from Maidenhead has been arrested as part of an investigation into allegations of historical sexual abuse in the care system in North Wales.

The man was arrested on suspicion of a number of sexual offences against a boy on Tuesday as part of Operation Pallial, which is being led by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

The offences are alleged to have taken place against a boy between 1984 and 1985, when he was aged between 14 and 15 years old.

The man is being interviewed by NCA officers.

The arrest is the 17th to take place in connection with the investigation.

One person has so far been charged.

Maidenhead Advertiser

Operation Pallial: Arrest Number 15.

Come on Op Fairbank pull your socks up! Op Pallial are beating you 15 – 5 at the moment.

 

A 62-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of sexual and indecent assault and child cruelty by officers investigating alleged historical sexual abuse in north Wales care homes.

The man, from Mold, Flintshire, was arrested on Wednesday as part of Operation Pallial.

The offences are alleged to have happened against three boys and one girl between 1973 and 1976.

Officers have said the youngsters were aged between 10 and 15.

It is the 15th arrest in the investigation.

The National Crime Agency launched the investigation last November to look at allegations relating to 18 care homes between 1963 and 1992.

One person has so far been charged with serious sexual offences.

BBC News

The Messham Intervention

Rebecca Television covers the whole of the UK but includes a built-in bias to issues concerning Wales. It’s independent, does not accept advertising or sponsorship and depends on donations to cover its costs.

The Editor is the Irish-born journalist Paddy French. He was a current affairs producer on the ITV Wales current affairs strand Wales This Week for nearly ten years. He left ITV in 2008 and now lives in France.

STEPHEN MESSHAM
Photographed in 2000 holding a copy of the North Wales Child Abuse Tribunal report, Messham was described in its pages as “severely damaged psychologically”.  Photo: Phil Noble / PA

HOW WAS it that Stephen Messham — a “severely damaged psychologically” man —  was allowed to accuse a senior Tory politician of child abuse on a  national current affairs programme when those same allegations had been dismissed as unreliable twenty years earlier?

Messham, the 49-year-old former resident of the Bryn Estyn children’s home near Wrexham, was the key witness in the BBC’s now notorious early November edition of Newsnight about child abuse in North Wales.

Messham claimed he’d been sexually abused by a senior Tory politician while he was in care.

Newsnight did not identify the man but a frenzy of speculation on the internet meant that Lord McAlpine was quickly — and falsely — “outed” as the alleged abuser.

A week later Messham saw a photograph of Lord McAlpine and declared he was not the man who had abused him.

The media firestorm that followed this disastrous broadcast forced the BBC’s newly-appointed Director General, former Newsnight editor George Entwistle, to resign.

It also cost the editor of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Iain Overton, his job.

It was the Bureau’s lead reporter Angus Stickler, a former BBC journalist, who came up with the idea for Newsnight and he presented the item.

On the morning of the broadcast, Overton tweeted:

“If all goes well we’ve got a Newsnight out tonight about a very senior political figure who is a paedophile”.

The night before Overton had attended an Oxford University Union debate where Channel 4 News reporter Michael Crick, himself a former Newsnight journalist, asked him if the unidentified politician was McAlpine.

The Observer quotes Overton as saying: “Well, you said it.”

On the day of the broadcast, Michael Crick spoke to Lord McAlpine who denied that he was involved in child abuse — and said he would sue if he was named.

Newsnight did not contact the politician because it decided not to name him.

So why did Stickler, an experienced reporter who won the Sony Radio Academy Award for the best news journalist in 2006, make such an elementary mistake?

Much more at Rebecca Television

The Trials Of Gordon Anglesea

Rebecca Television covers the whole of the UK but includes a built-in bias to issues concerning Wales. It’s independent, does not accept advertising or sponsorship and depends on donations to cover its costs.

The Editor is the Irish-born journalist Paddy French. He was a current affairs producer on the ITV Wales current affairs strand Wales This Week for nearly ten years. He left ITV in 2008 and now lives in France.

GORDON ANGLESEA
The North Wales Police superintendent won a major libel case against journalists who accused him of abusing young boys at the Bryn Estyn children’s home outside Wrexham.
Photo: Rebecca Television

GORDON ANGLESEA, the former North Wales Police superintendent, is an enigma.

On the one hand he won a famous libel action which saw some of the country’s biggest media companies pay£375,000 in damages for falsely accusing him of sexually abusing young boys.

On the other, he was an important character in the events which led up to the decision to set up the north Wales Child Abuse Tribunal in 1996.

He was a senior police officer and a freemason in a situation where critics were alleging that the police were covering up child abuse, some of which was laid at the door of freemasons.

The Tribunal could find no evidence that would have persuaded the libel trial jury to change its mind.

But its three members expressed “considerable disquiet” about some of the evidence Anglesea gave when he appeared before them.

And now a Rebecca Television investigation reveals that the judge in his libel action also shares that “considerable disquiet”.

Much more at Rebecca Television

A Mason-Free Zone ?

THE NORTH WALES CHILD ABUSE TRIBUNAL
There were three members of the Tribunal — Margaret Clough, chairman Sir Ronald Waterhouse and Morris le Fleming. The evidence suggests they did not come to grips with the role of freemasonry in the North Wales Police. Photo: PA

THE WATERHOUSE Tribunal set the tone for its approach to freemasonry right from day one.

In the very first session the barrister for one of the groups of former residents of care homes made an application about masonry.

The barrister, Nick Booth, asked that “the Tribunal should keep a register of the masonic membership amongst its staff, the members, its representatives and witnesses who appear before it”.

He explained:

“The duty of loyalty to a brother mason and his duty of impartiality if he is involved in the administration of justice is not a new one and it’s one that’s very much in the public eye, particularly at the moment.”

“The Tribunal will be aware of the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee which is investigating the issue,” he added.

“Sir, I stress, if I have not stressed it before, that I am not making any suggestion of disreputable conduct, merely to put the matter beyond the reach of any possible public comment which might undermine the public confidence in the Inquiry.”

Much More at Rebecca Television

Operation Pallial: An Overview.

Operation Pallial, the National Crime Agency-led investigation into recent allegations of historical abuse in the care system in North Wales, is now investigating allegations from more than 200 people.

The number of people coming forward to support the independent investigation, led by Keith Bristow, Director General of the National Crime Agency, has increased by nearly a 100 since the operation’s Public Report on Progress in April.

Since the investigation began a year ago, (November 15, 2012), a total of 235 people have contacted the Operation Pallial team, of whom 204 have indicated that they are willing and able to support the investigation. The investigation continues to make good progress, with over 97% of complainants already having been video interviewed by specially trained officers.

Pallial has made a total of 14 arrests to date and one person has been charged with more than thirty serious sexual offences. The 13 other individuals arrested have all been bailed while enquiries continue.

Operation Pallial has been given the names or part names of around 100 alleged offenders, who are all subject to further investigation at this time, including 24 who are believed to have died. Even in these cases, information about them will be investigated by Pallial in consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service in order that victims can be updated.

More at Wrexham.com