Delena Wells: 72-year-old ‘sexual predator’ accused of abusing underage boys

Pensioner accused of molesting children while in her forties

The trial continues at Bristol Crown Court. (PA Archive/PA Images)

A woman, now aged 72, is accused of sexually abusing a number of underage boys at her home when she was in her forties.

Delena Wells allegedly abused one child by performing a sex act on him.

She is also accused of having intercourse and engaging in abuse of a second schoolboy on hundreds of occasions.

Both children were under the age of 16 at the time. Bristol Crown Court heard the assaults happened three decades ago.

The pensioner denies seven counts of indecent assault.

A jury at Bristol Crown Court heard she invited one schoolboy to visit her cottage to drink cider, smoke and watch television.

On another occasion she made him watch pornography before assaulting him, the court was told.

“The crown suggests that this lady, born in 1947, in her younger days was a sexual predator,” said Donald Tait, the prosecuting lawyer.

“In interview, [an alleged victim] said he enjoyed the attention she bestowed on him.

“He said further sexual activity took place between them on perhaps hundreds of occasions. It stopped around about his 15th birthday.

“He was told, bearing in mind he was a boy, not to tell anyone about what was going on otherwise he would end up in prison. As a young lad he believed this.”

The boy told a number of people about Ms Wells’ alleged abuse before reporting her to the police.

A second alleged victim said he was at the woman’s home when she began talking about “girls being frigid but women not being frigid”.

He told the court that Wells then took off his trousers and molested him.

“I didn’t try and fight her off,” he said, adding that he was sick in the toilet after the encounter.

The pensioner denies all the allegations. She described the victim as “delusionary and a fantasist”.

A jury heard police officers traced the second, separate complainant after the first came forward.

The trial continues.

Additional reporting by agencies