April 2016 Garndiffaith paedophile pensioner fails in bid for freedom A TORFAEN pensioner who is serving an eight year prison sentence for a string of sex crimes against children has failed in a Court of Appeal bid for freedom. Alan Clarke Davies, 72, targeted two young children. Davies denied any wrongdoing, but was convicted of 11 offences at Cardiff Crown Court in June 2012 and jailed for eight years. He was back before a court in March after his lawyers launched an appeal bid to clear his name and secure his release. But after taking a month to consider the case, three top judges today returned and dismissed Davies’ appeal. Mr Justice Turner said convictions of the pensioner, of Garnteg School Close, Garndiffaith, near Pontypool, were ‘safe’. “We are satisfied that none of the grounds of appeal relied upon in this appeal reveal these convictions to have been unsafe,” said the judge. The Court of Appeal heard Davies was a regular drinker, who attacked children when he was under the influence of alcohol. He touched them in intimate areas, said the appeal judge. Davies claimed not to remember any of the alleged attacks. Appealing, his lawyers argued that the jury should have been better directed on how to consider some of the evidence in the case. The appeal judge, who considered the case with Lord Justice Davis and Mrs Justice Elisabeth Laing, dismissed the complaints and upheld the convictions. Davies had been found guilty of five counts of gross indecency, four indecent assaults and two attempted sex assaults.