A former scout leader and school housemaster who spent decades evading justice under a stolen identity has been sentenced to 46 years in prison for a series of horrific sexual offences against young boys.
Richard Burrows, 81, systematically abused 24 boys across Cheshire, the West Midlands and West Mercia between 1968 and 1995.
In emails found after his eventual arrest, Burrows described “living in paradise” from 1997 after he fled to Thailand.
His reign of abuse spanned nearly three decades, targeting vulnerable boys under his care.
Burrows’s predatory actions finally caught up with him after 27 years on the run. He had been living under an assumed identity, concealing his past and evading the consequences of his crimes.
The court heard harrowing details of Burrows’s abuse, which left lasting scars on his victims.
Earlier that year, he had been charged with a number of historical sex offences and was bailed but failed to attend a plea hearing at Chester Crown Court in December 1997.
Attempts to locate him included several police appeals and four Crimewatch appeals on national television.
In April 2023, detectives from Cheshire Police’s serious and organised crime unit used specialist software to search for any possible images of Burrows online, which uncovered a match for a man using the name of Peter Smith who was living in Chalong in Phuket, Thailand.
After searching through billions of images, the system came back with a match for a man who “had an active interest in sailing” and previously worked at an advertising firm on the Thai island, where he had even featured in a local news report upon retiring in 2019, according to Cheshire Police.
Detectives discovered Burrows had stolen the name from an acquaintance who was terminally ill, which allowed him to fraudulently obtain a genuine passport and leave the country without detection.
Plans were under way to extradite him when he flew into Heathrow Airport after he ran out of money and was diagnosed with cancer. Burrows was swiftly arrested on arrival last March.
He was charged with further offences in Cheshire, the West Midlands and West Mercia which had been reported after he disappeared.
Last month, Burrows was found guilty by a jury at Chester Crown Court of 54 offences including indecent assault of boys, buggery, attempted buggery and indecency with a child.
He pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to another 43 offences including indecent assault, making indecent images of children, possession of indecent images of children and four counts of possession of false identity documents with intent.
His offending in Cheshire took place between 1969 and 1971 while he was employed as a housemaster looking after vulnerable children at Danesford Children’s Home in Congleton.
His victims in the West Midlands and West Mercia areas were abused between 1968 and 1995, the majority through local Scout groups where Burrows worked as a leader.
In each case he befriended the victims by using his position of trust.
