June 2018

Paedophile jailed after being found on the run in Kent

A paedophile ex-landlord who went on the run was discovered holed up in a seaside hotel.

Bryan Davies, ex-landlord of the Drum Inn in Stanford, near Ashford, was tracked down after he was picked up by the air ambulance from the Grand Burstin hotel in Folkestone last month.

He had fled a six-week long trial in Wales but was discovered after being airlifted to a London hospital after suffering a “medical incident”.

He was found guilty of 29 child sex abuse offences at Mold Crown Court in Wales this month.

It came after the 71-year-old, also a former deputy principal of a children’s home in Ystrad Hall in Llangollen, was the subject of a five year National Crime Agency (NCA) probe dubbed Operation Pallial.

He was found guilty of 20 offences of buggery and indecent assault 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-based 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 for his pleasure.

NCA 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.

“It is clear from the forensic evidence from his computers that his predatory activity had developed in his use of the internet to engage young boys in sexual activity, continuing to present a real risk against the young boys he targeted.

A total of three men contacted the NCA with new complaints about the abuse they had suffered at the hands of Davies and the investigation team re-interviewed eight other men who had previously detailed abuse by him.

Davies was initially arrested by NCA officers in October 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 seized computers identified 167 indecent images of children – mainly young teenage boys – and a number of online conversations with three young boys who Davies incited to take part in sexual acts.

Working with the Crown Prosecution Service and Malta police force, Davies was arrested in August 2017 under a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) and extradited to the UK.

He was sentenced to 22 years behind bars at Mold Crown Court.

Update: Sentenced to 22 years

May 2018

Paedophile slit his throat after going on the run

A predatory paedophile went on the run and slit his throat in a suicide bid as his trial continued at Mold Crown Court, it was revealed yesterday afternoon.

After the jury returned its verdicts in the case of Bryan Davies, 71, they were told that the reason he had not been in the dock this week was that he had been found in a hotel in Folkestone where he had slit his throat and cut his legs.

He was currently in hospital in London awaiting surgery.

Judge Huw Rees, who had issued a warrant for his arrest, was assured that Davies was under police guard and, as soon as he was well enough to be discharged, he would be arrested and brought to court.

The jury of six men and six women returned 19 guilty verdicts – 15 of indecent assault upon six of the complainants and four of an illegal sex act upon another complainant.

He was found not guilty of indecently assaulting three other complainants and indulging in an illegal sex act upon one of them.

They also convicted Davies of six charges of making indecent images of children between 2007 and 2013, and three charges of inciting young boys to indulge in sexual acts over the internet in 2011 and 2012.

After being given the majority direction, the jury convicted him of indecently assaulting another complainant by a ten to two majority.

He was cleared of two charges of indecently assaulting a complainant.

Davies had earlier been convicted of two offences against the same man when he was a child.

The defendant lost his job after he admitted indecently assaulting two children at the home in Llangollen magistrates’ court in the late 70s.

After being arrested and interviewed, he fled the country and had to be extradited from Malta.

After the verdicts were returned, the judge was told by prosecutor Daniel Moore that Davies had sent his solicitors an email on Sunday indicating that he was going to take his own life.

When it was seen on Monday, the solicitors immediately informed the National Crime Agency and they used their techniques to discover that the defendant was in a hotel in Folkestone in Kent.

Officers attended and found Davies had slit his throat and cut his legs.

He was taken to the King’s College Hospital in London where he was due to have an operation to the throat.

He was under police guard and the operation had not yet taken place.

Mr Moore said Davies would require two days recovery before being fit to attend court.

The judge said the jury had not been told so that they would concentrate on the evidence and not be swayed by events.

He had issued a warrant and, when Davies was fit, he would be arrested and brought before him.

Judge Rees said it was not appropriate to sentence Davies in his absence for such offences.

He said he faced “an extremely substantial” sentence of imprisonment.

The judge said he did not require a pre-sentence report.

He did not intend to pass a life sentence or an extended sentence.

But the determinate sentence that he would pass would mean that the defendant “will be in extreme advanced old age before he is released from prison”.

He thanked the jury for their hard work during the last five and a half weeks and said that they were ”a credit to the jury system”.

The defendant, of West Redhill in Surrey, denied all charges.

The sexual offences happened at Ystrad Hall and an annex named Eirianfa at Llangollen, which was run by a private organisation named Care Concern in the 1970s.