A former boarding school housemaster and scout leader has been found guilty of 97 offences, including dozens of historical child sexual abuse offences.
Richard Burrows spent 27 years on the run, living in what he described as “paradise”, after fleeing the UK when he was due to appear in court in 1997.
Burrows, who lived in the southern Thailand province of Phuket, told family he had come back to face his accusers and his maker – police say the truth was that he simply had run out of money.
He had previously admitted dozens of offences dating from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s.
The jury at Chester Crown Court heard that Burrows systematically abused boys with whom he came into contact.
Burrows had admitted 43 offences – and denied 54 others, which jurors convicted him of on Monday.
Mark Connor KC said: “He obtained positions of trust and responsibility which he breached to satisfy himself sexually with the youngsters.”
Burrows had worked as a housemaster at a school for troubled teenagers in Cheshire in the 1960s. He was later involved with the scouts and amateur radio clubs in the Midlands.
Image: Richard Burrows was met by police at Heathrow
Victim describes ‘despicable, evil human being’
James Harvey was 13 or 14 when he was befriended by Burrows through his involvement with the sea scouts. Burrows admitted indecently assaulting James in a caravan after visiting an RAF show.
James has waived his right to anonymity as a victim of a sexual offence.
He told Sky News: “The reason I’m doing this is to at least put a face to the real children who from the age of 10, 12, 13, put their trust in this man. I want his name to be trashed in the world for everybody that ever knew him and thought that he was okay.
“I think he’s pathetic in the true sense of the word. His impulses and emotions have driven everything that he’s done probably throughout the whole of his life and have left him looking like a shambling, despicable, evil human being that could casually over 60 years do this to children and still wake up in the morning and find a way of justifying it.
“I think he’s pathetic, I think he’s weak. There is nothing about this man that deserves anything other than loathing.”
Image: James Harvey has waived his right to anonymity
Accusers came forward after Crimewatch appeal
During his trial, Burrows admitted being a paedophile but denied the more serious allegations, describing them as “degrading and disgusting”.
The court heard that Burrows believed his actions had done no harm to the children.
As he planned his return to the UK last year, he told his brother that “not all paedophiles are the same”.
“I just think that’s a disgusting comment to make,” detective inspector Eli Atkinson of Cheshire Police told Sky News.
“What we see when we talk to the victims is that it absolutely did do harm. For the vast majority of them, that is their first sexual experience at the age of nine, ten, eleven, twelve, that affects a person for the rest of their life.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
3:08
Paedophile’s life in Thailand
Burrows, who is originally from Sutton Coldfield, was first arrested in April 1997 and charged with child sexual offences. When he failed to appear at Chester Crown Court that December, a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Over the years, police made numerous televised appeals for help to track down Burrows on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme. It prompted more accusers to come forward.
But Burrows had left the UK. He obtained a passport using the name Peter Leslie Smith having cloned the identity of an unwell acquaintance.
During a routine reappraisal of the case, police used facial recognition software to confirm that “Smith” was in fact Burrows, and that he was living openly in Thailand.
When they became aware of his plans to return to the UK, police allowed Burrows to travel on his fake passport so he could be arrested as he touched down.
Cheshire Police say they are not able to say whether Burrows might have offended during his time living abroad.
DI Atkinson said it is possible there are other victims who have not come forward.
“There may well be. There’s a lot of reasons why people have really difficult decisions to make as to whether they come forward in cases like this.
“It would not surprise me if, given the length of time that he offended over and the level of offending, if there were more people out there who were victims of him.”
James Harvey has questions over why Burrows was granted bail in 1997. He also wonders whether he could have done more to report him earlier.
“People listening to me now might think ‘Oh, I’d behave differently’ but we had no language, no framework, no understanding, no imagination that this same person had done to us, would go on and do something so much worse to somebody else.
“It is almost impossible for me to sit here and say I wish I had done that. There was no way that I could, literally. We lived in this kind of unbelievable ignorance and innocence that there were predators like this living in every single one of our institutions.”
Burrows has now been convicted. Some of his accusers died before seeing him finally face justice.
Those with “milder mental health” issues and “lower-level physical conditions” could see their disability benefits cut, as the government looks to shave £6bn off the welfare bill.
Her welfare reform green paper will arrive after Downing Street insisted there is a “moral and an economic case for fixing our broken system”.
Government figures argue the rising sickness and disability bill, which has ballooned since the pandemic, is unsustainable and will “leave the welfare state losing legitimacy” in the eyes of the wider public if not dealt with.
The cuts come as the chancellor eyes a hole in the public finances on the back of lower than expected growth and rising borrowing costs, with the £9.9bn headroom she had at the budget in October now wiped out.
Rachel Reeves’ self-imposed fiscal rules mean day-to-day government spending must be covered by tax revenue by 2029-30, which leaves her needing billions of pounds in spending cuts (after ruling out further tax rises, her other option).
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:23
Welfare reforms will ensure ‘trust in system’
What changes should we expect?
Ms Kendall is expected to target personal independence payments (PIP) – one of the main forms of disability benefits for those with long-term illnesses or disabilities – amid a spike in claimants.
The PIP bill has grown from £13.7bn a year before the pandemic to £21.8bn in the current financial year, and is set to increase to £34.1bn by the end of the decade.
The number of people claiming this disability benefit is projected to more than double from two million to 4.3 million.
These payments are now expected to rise in line with inflation, but the eligibility criteria will be tightened to whittle back the number of people eligible to claim.
One government figure told me it would result in some conditions, such as “milder mental health” or “lower-level physical conditions”, being ineligible for PIP.
But they stressed that those with more severe conditions and who are never going to be able to work would be protected and cared for.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:44
Why is there a surge in youth unemployment?
The key principles driving reforms
The changes are likely to draw criticism from some MPs, though one senior Labour source said they didn’t think there would be any ministerial resignations over the benefit announcements.
Another Labour figure told me they would be “massively shocked” if there were resignations.
However, a number of Labour MPs have voiced their concerns, as has the Manchester mayor Andy Burnham.
In a bid to assuage MPs, the work and pensions secretary is also expected to earmark £1bn of savings into employment support programmes as she frames the reforms around three clear principles.
Spreaker
This content is provided by Spreaker, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Spreaker cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Spreaker cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Spreaker cookies for this session only.
The first will be to prevent people from falling into long-term economic inactivity with a better support offer to get people back into work quickly.
The second will be to change the incentive systems to move people away from welfare dependency.
This could see Ms Kendall slash the highest level of incapacity benefit for working age people who have an illness or disability that limits their ability to work, while increasing the basic rate of support for those out of work (universal credit).
This is because the lower level of unemployment benefit has led to more people claiming for additional incapacity and disability benefits, while disincentivising them to try to find work.
The government will also announce a “right to try” scheme, allowing those on incapacity benefits to try returning to work without the risk of losing their benefits, as happens in the current system.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:13
Will there be a backlash over benefits?
‘I don’t think they go far enough’
But with one in 10 working age people claiming sickness benefits, and one in eight young people not in education, employment or training, the reforms on Tuesday could be just the start of bigger changes – and potentially bigger political battles.
The cost of long-term sickness and disability benefits for working-age people has risen by about £20bn since the pandemic to about £48bn, and is forecast to hit almost £100bn by 2030.
“People are trapped on benefits and the bill is getting out of hand,” said one government figure.
“We are currently spending more than three times the annual policing bill on these benefits. It’s getting out of hand.
“I don’t think the reforms go far enough, and I don’t think people have clocked the size of the numbers going on here.”
Detectives searching for a Cardiff woman who has been missing since last summer have launched a murder investigation.
Three arrests have previously been made in connection with the disappearance of Charlene Hobbs.
Image: Pic: South Wales Police
Crimestoppers is now offering a reward of up to £20,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.
The last confirmed sighting of the 36-year-old, from Riverside, was a photograph taken on a mobile phone at a house in Broadway in the Adamsdown area of the city on 24 July last year.
Ms Hobbs, who has a distinctive dragon tattoo on her back, had her hair in a bun and was wearing a dark strapless top when the photo was taken.
The day before she was last seen, she was captured on CCTV at a Morrisons Local in Adamsdown.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:49
CCTV released in the search for Ms Hobbs
In a statement released through South Wales Police, Ms Hobbs’ family said: “We still hope that Charlene can be found safe and well.
“We are grateful for the support of Crimestoppers and the reward to help us find her, and hope that this will help people to come forward with information about what has happened to Charlene.”
Image: Ms Hobbs at a property in Broadway, Adamsdown, left, and at a Morrisons Local in the area, right. Pics: South Wales Police
Detective Chief Inspector Matt Powell said: “We have always been determined to find Charlene alive and return her to her family, but despite a huge number of enquiries we have no proof that Charlene is alive.
“While I have always maintained an open mind, the lack of evidence that Charlene is alive means that we are now treating her disappearance as a murder investigation.
“We have spoken to more than 250 people, either known to Charlene or from areas where she is known to frequent, and no one can tell us where Charlene is or that she is alive, which of course we, her family and friends desperately want to hear.
“Several of those we have spoken to believe that she has died but no one has been able to provide any specific details.”
Image: Extensive searches have taken place for the missing 36-year-old. Pic: South Wales Police
Image: Pic: South Wales Police
Detectives and specialist search teams are continuing with extensive efforts to find Ms Hobbs and determine the circumstances around her disappearance.
DCI Powell added: “I still firmly believe that answers lie in the community, and that someone out there holds key information that will help us find Charlene.”
A 45-year-old man arrested in connection with the investigation remains on police bail.
A 43-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman have been released without charge.
In Thailand, Richard Burrows found an escape – a place to hide for nearly 30 years.
After abusing children, he fled the UK to avoid prosecution. But the severity of his crimes didn’t push him to live a low-profile life – far from it.
In the sandy shores of Phuket, he became very well known and liked. Everyone there knew him as Peter Smith, an identity he stole from a passport that wasn’t his.
No one appeared to know where he had gone after he failed to attend the start of his trial over alleged child sex offences at Chester Crown Court in 1997.
His abuse spanned a wide period from the 1960s to the 1990s. Some of the offences occurred at a children’s school in Cheshire and others happened in the Midlands, through his involvement with the scouts.
But it would take 27 years for him to be caught, finally arrested at Heathrow Airport.
Image: Richard Burrows was put on trial after years in Thailand
He had settled in Thailand with a familiar routine and a wide circle of acquaintances. He would regularly dine at a small roadside restaurant, often ordering fish and chips.
The owner Pakorn Sanwongwan says the man they knew was kind and generous. They had no idea of his past.
“I’m very shocked because from my perspective, he was a good person. For the past 24 years he had recommended our restaurant to lots of people and brought us new customers,” he said.
His wife Supaporn says they were shocked when just a few months ago he announced he was “going to the UK and never coming back”.
It’s easy to see how many people were duped. He kept the reality of what he’d done largely hidden. And his was not a life lived under the radar.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:36
Victim speaks out over sex attacker
He was involved in the local sailing community. His friends say he’d worked with local schools. And he’d worked in local media.
Burrows lived in a container, a short drive from the coastline. But things started to unravel when money ran thin.
He began opening up to a very small number of close friends, saying he needed to return to the UK to see family and was struggling financially.
“Ben”, not his real name, was among those close confidantes.
He said: “I knew him for 25 years. Only about three to four years ago, he started sort of revealing a few things that he’s not actually who his passport says he is and that he was searched by the UK authorities for some allegations, apparently, he’s done.”
Ben says he had no idea of the severity of the charges against him. The man he thought he knew was a kind soul, giving and supportive of many he met.
There were, he says, signs of his attraction to young people, but it didn’t raise alarm bells.
“Peter” had younger companions who cooked for him at home and he would finance the education of some of them, Ben told us.
“Obviously it was visible that he liked the younger generation. But that he would go for minors I would never have thought,” he said.
Image: The container where Burrows lived in Thailand
All of the offences were committed during Burrows’ time in the United Kingdom, and no charges have been brought against him in Thailand.
If Ben knew the details of Burrows’ sordid past, he may have thought differently. But Burrows was living a lie, enjoying a secret life in the sun.
Remarkably, Burrows went undetected for decades – his visa based on a fake passport, consistently renewed.
It’s unclear what exactly motivated his attempt to move back to the UK, a move that would end in his arrest at Heathrow.
Some we spoke to said he had run out of money and that he wanted to see family. But some suspected he was trying to make peace with his past.
Finally, he has been brought to justice. But his victims were left to deal with the horrific aftermath of his abuse.
Whilst he is now behind bars, they will also have to wrestle with the fact their abuser was able to enjoy a free and full life for so long.