Gordon Anglesea trial: Victim 'would have killed abuser'

An alleged child sex abuse victim says he would have killed a former police officer, if he had realised how much time he would spend in jail in later years.

"I would have been out by now," he told police investigating the case.

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

In video interviews played at Mold Crown Court, the man said the ex-police chief had "wrecked my life".

He described how he claimed to have been abused as a child in showers at an attendance centre in Wrexham.

He told police he was subjected to a serious sexual assault, that left him in pain.

Asked if he had said anything at the time, he replied: "Just keep it quiet, you know what I mean.

"You didn't mess about with him, you would get a clack. Everybody would get a clack off him. He'd show who was boss."

The witness told interviewers that he had spent much of his life in prison, and had become an alcoholic: "Everything because of him," he stated.

"I hated him, I hated him.

"If I knew now, to tell you the truth, how much prison I would have done right, I would have killed him because I would have been out by now anyway.

"He's wrecked my life - I have not had a life because of it."

Under cross-examination in court on Wednesday, the witness insisted he had been sexually abused by Mr Anglesea and was "not here for compensation".

Quizzed by defence barrister Tania Griffiths QC on his criminal past, he said he had not be in trouble for 15 years.

"You are talking about my past, " he said.

"I want to look to my future."

Ms Griffiths put it to him he had been admitted to mental institutions about 20 times.

He said he had had a hard life, adding: "He has sexually abused me. All I want, right, is him to pay his dues, and that's it."

He also told the court: "I'm not here for myself, believe me..."

Pointing to the defendant and wiping his eyes, he said: "I'm here to look him in the eye... evil."

The defence told the jury that the witness had told someone he had been sexually abused in a Denbigh mental hospital, and suggested he had switched his focus to the former police officer following media coverage of another Wrexham historic abuse trial.

Ms Griffiths later referred to the witness's mental health, and the fact he had suffered hallucinations.

He replied: "I haven't been well psychiatrically since he abused me."

Mr Anglesea, of Old Colwyn, denies four charges against two complainants - two charges of indecent assault and one serious sexual allegation against one complainant at the attendance centre, and one charge of indecent assault on the other at a house in Mold.

The offences are alleged to have taken place between 1982 and 1987.

The trial continues.