A FORMER Wrexham Football Club chef has been convicted of indecently assaulting two young men when they were teenagers and remanded in custody.

One victim was on trials with the club and had digs with defendant Ieuan Jones.

Jones denied the allegations but was convicted by the jury at Mold Crown Court.

Judge Rhys Rowlands rescinded his bail and said he had been convicted of serious indecent assaults against two 16-year-olds, one in the 1990s and the other in the 2000s.

The first one went as far as Jones performing oral sex on the victim who had been entrusted by his parents into the care of Wrexham AFC. The club in turn trusted Jones to look after him.

“What you did to him was serious, in breach of a very high degree of trust,” the judge told Jones.

His conduct towards the second victim was not as serious but there were elements of grooming in that he had invited him back to his home, certainly to drink.

The judge said he accepted it all happened a long time ago which would be reflected in sentence, but on the other hand he had got away with it for many years.

One of the complainants in particular had struggled to cope with what he did to him as a very young boy.

Judge Rowlands said a full pre-sentence report would be required including a note from his GP about his medical conditions.

But he said he was concerned that Jones would fail to surrender to the court and rejected a bail application by defence barrister Trevor Parry-Jones.

He said his client was unwell, was taking a cocktail of medication and had not made proper arrangements for custody.

Jones, Mr Parry-Jones said, had an elderly mother and in addition had a pet dog at home which needed to be cared for.

Jones , 67, now of Chorley Street, Adlington in Lancashire, was convicted of indecently assaulting a teenage boy who dreamt of becoming a professional footballer.

He was affected by the high profile case of Barry Bennell employed by Crewe Alexandra FC who had been convicted of sexual abusing young boy footballers and reported to police what he said had happened to him.

He was in the 1990s, aspiring to be a professional footballer and had trials with Wrexham AFC.

It was the prosecution case that one night he was asleep above the bed clothes or sleeping bag because it was so hot and woke up to find Jones performing oral sex on him.

The complainant said he later left the club and did not make a formal complaint at the time.

Jones was a chef at the club looking after everyone and he took the view that with loads of youngsters wanting trials that it would have been easier to get rid of him, a young 16-year-old, if he complained.

“That is why I left. I chose to leave," he said.

"Every time I went through the gate I was throwing up. I was reliving everything on a daily basis.

“I could not face being there, even seeing the club badge,” he said.

In the 2000s, when Jones was still a chef at the football club, it was alleged a number of young people would go back to his home to drink and smoke.

One was given cannabis and that one night he was woken up by the defendant touching him sexually.

The jury was told Jones, who denied the claims, worked as a chef in the hospitality industry and had worked at Denbigh Hospital, a number of restaurants, on the rigs in the North Sea and had also been a catering manager at a superstore, a restaurant and a caravan site.

He had been a pub licensee and in about 1997 joined Wrexham AFC at the Colliers Park training ground in Gresford which had a kitchen and dining room for up to 50 people.

Jones said he made breakfasts and lunch for players and officials and would prepare lunches on match days.

He was asked on an informal basis if he would be prepared to look after some of the youngsters who came to play on a temporary basis.

Jones said in 1976 he had been jailed for nine months and banned from driving for three years for causing death by reckless driving after his best friend was killed in a road accident.

He resigned from Wrexham AFC when he had depression as the club went into liquidation in 2004.

Jones then managed pubs temporarily and then took over his own pub in Chorley, Lancashire.