Jailed: Children’s home sex abuser gets 22 years

Bryan Davies, 71, was found guilty of 29 child sex abuse offences following a six-week trial at Mold Crown Court. He was returned to court to face justice after trying to kill himself.

Davies was the former deputy principal of a private children’s home in the Llangollen area.

He was found guilty of 20 offences on eight teenage boys aged between 10 and 15 who were in care between 1976 and 1978. He was also found guilty of nine internet-related offences between 2006 and 2012, where he would use live-streaming sites to incite young boys aged between 13 and 15 to engage in sexual acts.

His conviction followed an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA), which was started after three men contacted it with new complaints about the abuse they had suffered at his hands.

Davies, now of West Redhill in Surrey, was initially arrested by officers from the NCA in Oct 2013 in relation to the contact offences, and a number of computers were seized for forensic examination. However while on bail, Davies fled to Malta in an attempt to evade facing justice.

The examination of the seized computers identified 167 indecent images of children – mainly young teenage boys – and a number of online conversations with three young boys whom Davies incited to take part in sexual acts.

Working with partners in the Crown Prosecution Service and the Malta Police Force, Davies was arrested in August 2017 under a European Arrest Warrant and extradited to the UK.

Senior Investigating Officer, Philip Marshall said: “Bryan Davies was sexually abusing vulnerable young boys who were in his care. He should have been protecting them, instead he exploited them for his own sexual gratification.”

The officer went on to pay tribute to the tenacity of all of the victims.