One of ‘UK’s worst paedos’ who acted ‘like a God’ abusing 19 children in care homes he owned dies in jail
A HORRIFIC sex offender who “acted like God” abusing children in care homes has died in jail.
John Allen, who ran multiple community children’s homes in Wrexham, in Wales, was sentenced to life behind bars for his depraved crimes.
He had only spent 11 years locked up in HMP Bure when he died aged 83, said the prison.
A spokesperson said: “HMP Bure prisoner John Allen died on May 3, 2025.
“As with all deaths in custody, the Prison and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.”
The twisted paedophile ran Bryn Alyn children’s homes for two decades after setting up his first in 1968 when he was just 27.
At it’s peak, Allen owned 11 properties with more than 150 children.
Many were subject to heinous abuse while living at the homes.
One former resident at the Bryn Alyn children’s home said living there “wasn’t care, it was like hell”.
He told how Allen had groomed him with gifts before abusing him.
“The system really did fail us,” he added.
In 2014 Allen was sentenced to life in jail for 33 sex offences carried out between 1976 and 1992.
The court heard at the time most of the complainants came from “dysfunctional, chaotic” backgrounds.
Instead of being protected they were taken advantage of by a “powerful man” who was described “as like a god” by one victim.
Mold Crown Court heard Allen put the children in a “highly sexualised atmosphere” and kept his victims silenced through fear and isolation.
Five years later he was convicted of seven counts of indecent assault and one of a serious sexual offence against children when more victims came forward.
He was sentenced to another 14-and-a-half years by judge Rhys Rowlands.
The judge told Mold Crown Court Allen was “sheer wickedness”.
The monster was originally arrested after an independent investigation was launched by the National Crime Agency (NCA) in 2012.
Dubbed Operation Pallial, the investigation looks into allegations of past abuse in the care system.
The NSPCC said Allen had conducted a “reign of terror over a dark period of several decades”.
He was put “high up the scale of the most prolific child abusers of recent times”.