'Abhorrent' Wrexham paedophile gang targeted vulnerable

On the surface, their lives appeared to be very different - radio DJ, civil servant and retired police officer, bus driver, cabaret singer and publican and businessman.

There did not appear to be any obvious link between them, but the group of five were indeed connected - by a dark, despicable secret.

Throughout the 1970s and 80s, they operated an "abhorrent" predatory paedophile ring in the Wrexham area of north Wales.

They targeted and preyed on vulnerable children aged between 10 and 15, in a "systematic and devious manner" before repeatedly abusing them and passing them from one abuser to the next.

"On some occasions, victims were given alcohol before the abuse took place," said Ed Beltrami, chief crown prosecutor for Wales.

"That's the whole nature of a paedophile ring; they pick on people who have vulnerability, they don't necessarily have a very stable home life and people looking after them so they are prey to offenders of this nature.

"Once they're into the ring then they are passed around from one offender to the other. "

The five men - two other defendants; retired teacher Roger Griffiths, 76, from Wrexham, and ex-slaughterman Keith Stokes from Farndon, Cheshire, were cleared of all charges - must have felt confident they would never be held to account for the young lives they had broken.

After all, they remembered a time when sex abuse claims against men, often in positions of influence, were routinely dismissed out of hand and not taken seriously.

But the two-month trial at Mold Crown Court is a reminder of how things have changed.

Now, complaints of abuse - no matter how long ago - are treated differently. They are taken seriously.

Rumours of a paedophile ring in Wrexham were nothing new. They had been circulating for years.

In 2000, the Waterhouse inquiry into physical and sexual abuse in north Wales children's homes acknowledged its existence.

"Twenty-five years ago, when I was first involved in digging this up, there was almost like a wall of silence," said Malcolm King, a Wrexham councillor who has been instrumental in exposing abuse of children in care.

"There was almost a disbelief that this sort of evil could be going on in our midst without us ever knowing about it."

"So breaking that dam of disbelief has been one of the important things that has happened over the past quarter of a century.

"But there's still much more to be done because the evidence is that there are hundreds and hundreds of people who've been abused that have never come forward, often abuse within their own families.

"But nevertheless, people remain silent with the most terrible things having been done to them."

Mr King and officers on the National Crime Agency's Operation Pallial team - set up in 2012 after Home Secretary Theresa May ordered an investigation into claims of previously overlooked child abuse in north Wales - have repeatedly paid tribute to the five victims.

The stress of facing their nightmare past, raking up excruciating memories and of being branded liars by the very men who brutalised them, can only be imagined.

"There is no forensic evidence - it's far too late for that," explains Mr Beltrami.

"No phone evidence, no CCTV, the usual supporting evidence is not available in a case of this nature so it comes down in the end to the oral testimony of the witnesses and of course the defendants have their say and it's for the jury to make up their mind whether they can be sure on the evidence they hear."

The victims told the jury how they had been abused mostly at the home of Gary Cooke - also known as Mark Grainger - who has a string of sex convictions.

At the time, he worked as a professional wrestler and ran a sex shop. He was also the ringleader of the gang of paedophiles.

He had taken in two lodgers - Neil Phoenix and local radio personality Roy Norry - who exploited his local celebrity status to ensnare his victims.

Together with civil servant Edward Huxley, they met former singer David Lightfoot who ran a bar in the town centre called Snowy's.

Here, the gang also gathered young boys to abuse.

The grooming tactics adopted by the abusers have been described as "carefully planned and single minded" and continued over their victims' childhoods.

"They were clearly vulnerable young people," said Ian Mulcahey, senior investigating officer with the National Crime Agency.

"They were targeted because of that reason. They were taken into this network of people and it's been difficult to escape that cycle."

Verdicts

He added: "They accessed their victims in a variety of ways. Some by chance meeting, then they've groomed them and built up levels of trust.

"They've plied them with alcohol, they've given them attention. These were very vulnerable young boys. They've played on that vulnerability."

The men took them on car trips, provided pornography, drugs, drink and sometimes money. Some of the boys would then introduce their friends to the men.

"I think the victims are incredibly brave," Mr Beltrami added.

"They have suffered over a very long period of time.

"It's not easy to come along and give evidence of sexual offences that have been committed against you in your childhood, particularly going through the criminal process with someone else coming along with suggestions that you're making it up. That's a hard process."

"Whilst the criminal justice process cannot put right the wrongs committed by these individuals, we hope that the victims will take some solace in knowing that their abusers have been brought to justice."

So the latest chapter in the scandal of child abuse in north Wales, both inside and outside the care system in the 70s and 80s, comes to a close.

Connections with some of these men can be made with other known paedophiles.

Cooke once worked for notorious paedophile John Allen, who ran children's homes in north Wales and was jailed for life in 2014.

There is evidence that they preyed on the same victims.

As talk of conspiracies and establishment cover-ups continue, and as Operation Pallial presses on with its quest to expose historical child abuse in the region - it is fair to say this is unlikely to be the last we hear of this episode of north Wales's dark and shameful past.