Richard Burrows: Ex-Scout leader found guilty of over 100 child sex abuse charges after 27 years on the run

Richard Burrows, 80, had fled the UK after being due in court in December 1997, a jury at Chester Crown Court was told. He was arrested at Heathrow Airport upon returning from Thailand in March last year.

Burrows, originally from Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, previously denied four counts of buggery, two counts of indecency with a child, two counts of attempted buggery and 47 indecent assaults against 10 complainants aged between nine and 15, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s. As complainants of sexual offences, none of the victims can be identified.

The court heard Burrows systematically abused boys with whom he came into contact with, and used his position as a housemaster at a school in Cheshire in the 1960s, where he allegedly preyed on vulnerable youngsters.

He was also involved in the Scouts as a Scout leader, and was involved in amateur radio clubs. The jury was told Burrows admitted indecent assault and sexual touching of some of the boys in his care.

But he denied abusing other youngsters and any penetrative sexual activity, drawing a distinction between that and sexual touching, which he appears to suggest is justified because in his mind he did no harm, the jury was told.

He claimed the complainants in this trial were either mistaken about the identity of the perpetrator or were lying. Burrows was first arrested in April 1997 and his house in Birmingham was searched.

A number of magazines showing adolescent and pre-pubescent boys engaged in sex were found stitched inside one of his jackets. He was charged with child sexual offences and was due to appear at Chester Crown Court on December 8, 1997.

When he failed to attend, a warrant was issued for his arrest. Burrows had fled to Thailand using the name Peter Leslie Smith, having cloned an acquaintance’s identity and obtained a passport in that name.

He was arrested at Heathrow Airport when he returned to the UK on the eve of his 80th birthday last March.