HUW MEURIG JONES OF COLWYN BAY SENTENCED TO NINE YEARS AND REGISTER AS A SEX OFFENDER FOR LIFE

In March 2019, Huw Meurig Jones, a 69-year-old former social worker from Penybryn, Old Colwyn, was found guilty of ten historic child sex offences following a trial at Mold Crown Court. Jones had denied all 13 charges, which involved the sexual abuse of two boys between June 1975 and October 1978.

During the trial, Judge Niclas Parry instructed the jury to find Jones not guilty of two charges related to one of the residents at an assessment centre where he was accused of offenses. After deliberating for three hours, the jury—comprising six men and six women—convicted Jones of 10 out of the 11 remaining charges on the afternoon of the same day.

Jones was acquitted of one count of serious sexual assault against a youth in Colwyn Bay during the 1970s. Judge Parry remarked, “I know that you will have been fully advised and that you know only a significant custodial sentence can follow conviction in this trial.”

He faced accusations of indecency with a child and indecent assault, with four charges each against a male former resident of Little Acton Assessment Centre in Wrexham in the 1970s. Additionally, Jones denied three counts of indecent assault against another male and two charges of serious sexual assault against a boy under his care in Colwyn Bay.

Jones’s professional work involved contact with vulnerable children, initially as a social worker at Little Acton, then in Wrexham for Clwyd County Council, and later in Colwyn Bay. The court revealed that both alleged victims, who did not know each other, reported their concerns separately in 1992 during a previous police investigation.

It was only when Operation Pallial, a historic sex abuse investigation, reopened the case files and contacted the complainants that further investigations by the National Crime Agency took place. The first victim stated he neither wanted nor consented to the activities, while the second was invited to play cards with Jones—then a social worker—at his flat in Colwyn Bay. Court testimony revealed that Jones provided cigarettes, and the game involved Gin Rummy and Strip Jack Naked—a card game where players remove clothes upon losing a round.

The court heard that during the game, Jones performed a sex act on the boy and demanded the same be done to him. Jones told police he could see no reason why the boy would make false allegations.

Judge Parry remanded Jones into custody overnight, with sentencing scheduled for the following day in Mold. As a result of the conviction, Jones was sentenced to nine years in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender for life.