A missionary who was stationed at a children’s home in Kenya was arrested for sexual assault after he was caught molesting three girls and boy while he was stationed in the country, KTLA reports.
Matthew Lane Durham, 21 years old, was sentenced to four years of imprisonment after her was found guilty of four counts of “engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places,” according to court documents.
According to the report the prosecutors wrote to the court, the volunteer missionary “raped three girls — ages 5, 9 and 15 — at least eight times. During that same time period, he sexually molested a 12-year-old boy twice.” Those things happened only in 33 days.
Prosecutors also said that Durham, not only forcefully sexually abused these children,” but “he psychologically damaged them by taking advantage of their trust he received from the children,” as reported by KTLA.
Durham was convicted by the jury on seven counts in June last year. Jude David L. Russell cleared him of three due to a technical error made by the prosecutors who wrote the report.
Stephen Jones, Durham’s attorney, told CNN that there are preparing an appeal against the decision of the court.
Durham did his volunteer mission in Kenya, where the community was aghast by what they had discovered.
Prosecutors wrote a sentencing memorandum to the court last February. According to the statement: “Durham’s actions have had a chilling effect on the lives of dozens of foreign volunteers in Kenya and elsewhere who must now live under the cloud of suspicion.”
The statement continued, “There is a real perception among Upendo’s local Kenyan community that more pedophiles lurk among the volunteers, especially the male volunteers.”
Durham started his mission in 2014 at Upendo Children’s Home in Nairobi. His main job was to help neglected children. According to the report, that was Durham’s fourth time volunteering for the school.
Durham was put into suspicion when a school caretaker observed that his behavior with the children he victimized had become unusual and peculiar.
The complaint had said that the school caretaker noticed “lingering embraces” and “lying beside some of the children on their beds” at night.
Leaders of the school confronted Durham regarding these allegations. They took his passport in fear of him running away. After a few days, they returned his passport to him and he immediately flew back to Oklahoma.
Durham’s attorney claimed that he was forced to give a confession or else he wouldn’t be given this passport back.
