A children’s care home boss and former scout master who spent almost three decades running from justice has been sentenced for 97 crimes today.
Richard Burrows – branded the UK’s most wanted paedophile – fled to Thailand on the eve of his trial in 1997 by stealing the identity of a dying man in a bid to evade capture. Now 81, he was finally arrested at Heathrow Airport in March last year after he was forced to return from Thailand after running out of money.
Between 1968 and 1995 he used his position of power to target 26 vulnerable boys as young as 10. He had admitted 43 offences and denied 54 others. In March this year, jurors at Chester Crown Court found him guilty on all counts. Today he was sentenced to 46 years in prison.
Prosecutor Mark Connor KC told the trial how Burrows fled the UK after he was arrested at his home in Birmingham in 1997. He said: “He had in fact fled to Thailand under the name of Peter Leslie Smith, having cloned an acquaintance’s identity and obtained a passport with that false identity.
“He was arrested when he attempted to re-enter the UK on March 28, 2024 on the eve of his 80th birthday, having enjoyed 27 years in ‘paradise’, to quote his description of where he had spent his time on the run.”
The prosecution told the court that Burrows ‘systematically abused male children under his care’. The boys were “vulnerable”, having previously been in trouble or had problems at home.
Burrows used his attic room at his home in Sutton Coldfield where he kept his radio equipment to commit some of the sex attacks to which he has pleaded guilty, the court heard.
The trial heard that one victim from the attic was aged 12 or 13 when he was attacked sometime between 1966 and 1968. He contacted police after seeing an appeal on the BBC Crimewatch programme in 2011.
Another victim was a 12-year-old paper boy with an interest in radios when Burrows invited him back to his home and then assaulted him in the attic.
Burrows, whose address was given as HMP Altcourse, had already pleaded guilty to another 43 offences, including indecent assault of boys, making indecent images of children, possession of indecent images of children and four counts of possession of false identity documents with intent, at an earlier hearing.
During the two-day sentencing, numerous victim personal statements were read out at Chester Crown Court, including some from the witness box as they faced the perpetrator as he watched on from the dock wearing headphones.
One told the court that Burrows had “stripped away my humanity” after he was taken away to the defendant’s tent on his first camping trip with the Scouts and subjected to an eight-hour ordeal. He said he twice attempted to take his own life and felt “perpetual trauma, shame and despair”.
Judge Everett told him: “You have done nothing to be ashamed of.”
Another victim said at the time he hid the abuse from his parents, could not tell any of his friends or trust a grown-up any more. He said: “I had no-one to turn to and just internalised it all. It totally affected my future relationships and behaviour. Even now I keep going through my head: ‘Why did you assault me? I looked up to you’.”
Judge Everett told him: “I want to be crystal clear. There is only one person at fault here and he is sitting opposite me in the dock. I suspect every single person in the courtroom, bar one, feels totally sorry for you.”
Phil Clemo, defending, said: “Putting it bluntly, whatever sentence your honour passes, he is going to die in prison. He spent 27 years in Thailand in a pleasant setting. The reality is his last days will be on the prison estate somewhere.
“He, of course, respects the verdicts of the jury even though he does not agree with it. He does accept on the matters he has always accepted and knows he has caused incredible suffering.”
Judge Everett replied: “I didn’t see much of that during the trial. He used the truly obnoxious saying ‘good and bad paedophiles’. I have a feeling that the jury was repulsed by that. His view was that a good paedophile did things which did not harm and a bad one does cause harm. That thought process is so warped it is difficult to understand.”
Mr Clemo continued: “There were moments when there were tears, not before the jury…” The judge replied: “There were tears in front of the jury but they were only tears for himself. As a person he deserves no sympathy whatsoever.”
Speaking outside court in March, when Burrows was finally convicted, detective inspector Eleanor Atkinson, who had led the investigation, said: “He systematically abused his victims, specifically targeting vulnerable boys in order to fulfil his own sexual gratification.
“Following his initial charges in 1997, Burrows knew he was guilty but rather than face the consequences of his actions, he acted like a coward and fled the country using a stolen identity taken from an unwell man. In emails that we have found since his arrest, Burrows described how he has spent the past three decades ‘living in paradise’, while his victims have all been left to suffer as they struggled to try and rebuild their lives.
“Thankfully, following our determination, he has finally been held accountable for his actions and is now behind bars where he belongs. It was clear throughout his trial that he did not feel remorse and had not thought at any point while living abroad about the impact his abuse had on his young victims.
“While his victims will never be able to forget what happened to them, I hope that the fact that Burrows has now been held accountable will finally provide them with some closure. Sadly, four of his victims have now passed away and so did not get to see justice served.
“I also hope that this case acts as a warning to any other wanted suspects – demonstrating that no matter how long you hide, we will find you and you will be held accountable.”
The force revealed that over the past 27 years detectives from Cheshire Police have been carrying out multiple enquiries including four Crimewatch appeals, none of which indicated Burrows had left the country.
There was no trace of him until April 2023 when detectives from the force’s Serious and Organised Crime Unit used specialist software to search for any possible images of Burrows online.
After searching through billions of images, the system came back with a match for a man using the name of Peter Smith who was living in Chalong in Phuket, Thailand.
‘Peter’ had an active interest in sailing and had previously been working at an advertising company in Phuket. He had even featured in the local news in 2019 when he retired from his job.