Graham Stridgeon committed the offences more than 40 years ago at Bryn Alyn Hall
Owen EvansBreaking News Editor
• 16:51, 15 JAN 2019
Graham Joseph Stridgeon A man who sexually abused a teenage boy at a notorious care home has had his “unduly lenient” sentence increased. Graham Joseph Stridgeon was jailed in October for three and a half years after admitting three counts of historic sexual assaults at the Bryn Alyn Hall children’s home near Wrexham. The offences, which date back more than 40 years, were carried out by Stridgeon while he himself was a resident at the care home.
Stridgeon, 64, who now uses the name Tony Gordon, was arrested and charged as part of Operation Pallial, a National Crime Agency investigation into allegations of past abuse in the North Wales care system. Following his sentencing, the Solicitor General Robert Buckland referred it to the Court of Appeal for being unduly lenient.
The Court of Appeal today increased his sentence to five years and 10 months in prison with an extended licence period of three years.
Speaking after the hearing, the Solicitor General said: “I would like to thank the victim for bringing Stridgeon’s offences to light, and I hope that they now feel that their courage has been rewarded and that justice has been done.
“I would also like to thank the National Crime Agency for their hard work on Operation Pallial.”
At Stridgeon’s original sentencing hearing at Mold Crown Court, Judge Rhys Rowlands said Stridgeon had “got away with committing these offences for many years”.
He added that, despite Stridgeon having learning difficulties, he would have known the harm he was causing to his victim.
After being sentenced, Stridgeon, of Park Avenue, Fleetwood, Lancashire, was also told he would be placed on the sexual offenders register for life.
The court heard the sexual abuse was “repeated over a considerable period of time”.
It emerged that Stridgeon had been jailed for sexual offences in the 1970s and 1980s and received a nine-year sentence for rape in 1991.
Stridgeon, who was 18 or 19 years old at the time of the offences, had originally pleaded not guilty to eight historic sexual assaults on young boys at Bryn Alyn Hall, but changed his plea and admitted to three counts before his trial was due to start.