THE former deputy principal of a Llangollen children’s home – charged with sexual offences against 11 boys in his care – told a court he did not strike up sexual conversations with underage boys in chatrooms.

Bryan Davies was questioned by prosecuting barrister David Spens about his interest in chatrooms and online video CAMs which Mold Crown Court heard he had visited, sometimes during the early hours of the morning.

Among the allegations against Davies is that he incited children to indulge in sexual acts over the internet in 2011 and 2012.

The prosecution allege that Davies - who held the position of deputy principal officer at Ystrad Hall and an annex named Eirianfa for two years up until May 1978 – engaged in a series of Skype conversations with underage boys.

One of those took place at 4.05am and involved a live CAM with a 14-year-old boy, although Davies said he had ended the conversation.

“He said he was 14, but I knew he wasn’t because I had spoken to him days previously.

"I spoke to nobody who was under the age of 16,” Davies told the court.

When he was asked by Mr Spens about the nature of the chatroom conversations, Davies claimed some participants were not frank about their age.

“You can be joking or sometimes even role playing. People will say they are underage. Some people will say they are overage,” he said.

“I was going along with it, when the conversation got to a certain level I turned it off. I found the chat rooms entertaining, that’s why I went on them.”

The court has heard how Davies admitted three charges of indecent assault against two residents of the care home at Llangollen Magistrates Court back in 1978.

Davies told the court the publicity he received from the case meant he was forced to turn down an offer to be a councillor.

“At any point in time the Daily Mirror and other newspapers would highlight that I had abused someone in 1978,” he said.

“I was invited to become a local councillor for the village I lived in.”

When questioned now Davies claimed those offences “just happened”, although the prosecution’s case is that as back in 1978 he retained a “profound, deep, long-lasting sexual interest in young boys”.

He said he was shocked when he heard that his former colleague, the care home’s principal Richard Leake, had been abusing boys under his care, offences for which he received a five-year prison sentence in 1999.

When he was asked by Mr Spens if he had any idea that Leake had “passed” one of the boys onto him, he replied: “That’s totally untrue. I had no idea.”

Davies, 71, now of West Redhill, Surrey denies 38 charges, 29 of which are alleged to have taken place at Ystrad Hall and Eirianfa.

The case continues.