Men gave Oscar performances if they lied about abuse, court told.
TWO men who accuse a former police chief of historical child sex offences gave "Oscar-winning performances" in the witness box if it was all an act, a jury heard.Both alleged victims of former Superintendent Gordon Anglesea had been left "damaged" by the abuse and led "chaotic" lives of crime and drug and alcohol addiction, Mold Crown Court was told. But Eleanor Laws QC, prosecuting, in her closing speech to the jury after six weeks of evidence, said the complainants' troubled lives in the past did not mean they were "bitter" and lying to the court now, as the defendant maintains.
Anglesea, 79, is accused of three counts of indecent assault and one count of a serious sexual assault against one complainant and one count of indecent assault against a second man, allegedly committed between 1982 and 1987 when both complainants were boys aged 14 or 15. The defendant, of Colwyn Bay, denies all charges.
During the trial the jury heard the defendant ran a Home Office attendance centre in Wrexham in the 1980s where tearaway teenagers would be given a military-style "short, sharp shock" regime of physical exercise, drill parades, and woodwork classes on Saturday afternoons.
Anglesea, an inspector with North Wales Police in Wrexham at the time, was "answerable to no-one" at the centre and would allegedly "inspect" the parade, make the youngsters do naked sit-ups and squat thrusts, then loiter around the showers "with a smirk on his face", it is claimed.
Three of the alleged sex assaults are said to have taken place at the attendance centre against one complainant who was "last back to the showers" after a cross-country run.
Anglesea denied any knowledge that paedophiles, later jailed for abusing youngsters, were operating in the four children's homes in his police patch as an inspector in Wrexham.
His other alleged victim told the court he was first sexually assaulted by a paedophile, John Allen, while in care and living at the Bryn Alyn children's home in Wrexham and the abuse sometimes involved other adults when he was "handed around like a handbag".
On one occasion, at a house in Mold, he alleged the defendant "grabbed him by the hair" and abused him, calling him "scum" and telling the boy he had the "power to send him away".
Ms Laws said: "It happened because they were in a situation where they were both vulnerable. What does that do to you as an individual and your perception of society and trust of individuals? "Be realistic, what you can expect of these, after such a long delay and the type of lives they have lived? "Oscar-winning performances, you may think, if they are lying."
She said some of the detail given by the witnesses may have been contradictory but on the "big picture" the evidence was "raw, credible and real".
And she reminded the jury that witnesses said Anglesea's visits to the children's homes where abuse occurred "became the norm" which was "completely different" from what the defendant had told them.
She said Anglesea could not be guilty by association but the connection with child abusers supports the allegations.
"You do have evidence of contact with paedophiles," she said.
In her final remarks to the jury she told them: "Don't leave your common sense at the door of the jury room. Mark their courage with a conviction."
But Tania Griffiths QC, defending Anglesea, described the allegations as "arrant nonsense" and the evidence of witnesses as "crocodile tears".
"Absolutely it is an Oscar-winning performance and you don't need me to tell you that. Those who tell whopping great lies know how to tell them," she said.
She contrasted the sometimes angry, shouting accusations from witnesses with the "stiff upper lip" shown by the defendant.
"No shouting back, no self-pity. Mr Anglesea is a decent man," she said.
She continued: "You will see what victim status buys them. For a proper victim the system is right but for someone who is not a proper victim it's a licence to print money."
"Look how the system, in the wrong hands, can be played and the complainant was playing the system.
"You have been treated over the last six weeks to a smoke screen."
The trial continues.
CAPTION(S):
Former Chief Superintendent Gordon Anglesea with his wife outside court
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| Publication: | Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales) |
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| Date: | Oct 19, 2016 |
| Words: | 717 |
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