Gordon Anglesea trial: 'Victim recognised abuser years later'

An alleged child abuse victim has told a court he only identified his ex-police chief abuser "years later" after spotting his picture with some stolen golf clubs.

Former Supt Gordon Anglesea, 78, denies sexually abusing two teenage boys in the 1980s.

One of his alleged victims - now in his 40s - said he found the image on a warrant card with the clubs.

He said he kept the abuse quiet because he was scared of "getting stitched up".

Mr Anglesea, of Old Colwyn, denies two indecent assaults and one serious sexual assault against one boy, and the indecent assault of another, at Mold Crown Court.

On Monday, one of the alleged victims told the court from behind a screen how he first met Mr Anglesea when he was in a police station.

He said he had run away from the Bryn Alyn care home in Wrexham, been picked up and brought to a police cell.

The man said Mr Anglesea came to the "flap on the door" with another officer, describing a "pinkish-purple stain on his face".

"I didn't know it was a birth mark at the time. I do now," he added.

Gordon Anglesea's trial began on Wednesday at Mold Crown Court

When questioned by prosecutor Eleanor Laws QC, the witness recalled an occasion when he was taken to a property in Mold and abused by a man.

"Now I know it was Gordon Anglesea," the man told the court.

But it was not until "years later", the man explained, that he identified Mr Anglesea.

He described being asked by a friend to get rid of some stolen golf clubs, which were accompanied by a warrant card carrying Mr Anglesea's picture.

The witness told how he kept quiet about the alleged abuse he suffered, because he was scared of "getting stitched-up".

He said he was scared of trying to "take someone from the establishment down", with his abusers among people in "authority".

'A bad man'

The witness said he was currently serving a prison sentence, having been a "bad man" all his life.

Defence counsel, Tania Griffiths QC, said that, as late as 2005, the witness was making allegations about being abused by individuals, but never mentioned Gordon Anglesea.

She said to the witness: "It wasn't done by Gordon Anglesea, was it?"

"The sexual abuse was," he replied.

The man said he reported his allegation because the "Jimmy Saville thing kicked off" and he had heard then-Prime Minister David Cameron urging alleged victims to report crimes.

When quizzed about his own criminal record, the man said he was "not the one on trial here" but Mr Anglesea - "that paedophile over there" - was.

The court has previously heard Mr Anglesea's defence case is that all the allegations are "lies and inventions".

The trial continues.