A man abused by Richard Burrows as a child has told Sky News he is grateful that “finally” the serial paedophile “can’t escape from what he’s done” after being jailed for 46 years.
Burrows, an 81-year-old former boarding school housemaster and scout leader, spent 27 years on the run in Thailand before he was arrested at Heathrow Airport last year.
Before his trial, he admitted 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.
Burrows denied 54 others, which jurors at Chester Crown Court convicted him of last month. Those offences include indecent assault of boys, buggery, attempted buggery and indecency with a child.
James Harvey was befriended by Burrows through his involvement with the sea scouts. Burrows admitted indecently assaulting James in a caravan after visiting an RAF show.
Mr Harvey has waived his right to anonymity as a victim of a sexual offence.
He told Sky’s chief North of England correspondent Greg Milam on Wednesday that he was “grateful to everybody who has been involved in getting him [Burrows] to court. For all of the victims, many of whom have died since they knew him, some of whom were in court. The police, the court system, over 40 years”.
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Mr Harvey said Burrows will be spending “a very, very long time in prison”.
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During the trial, Mr Harvey faced his perpetrator in court as he gave his statement, seeing him for the first time since the mid-1970s.
He said he made eye contact with Burrows as he was leaving court during one of the breaks.
‘I felt nothing’
Mr Harvey told Greg Milam: “He didn’t recognise me and that was almost confirmation that all of us, all of the boys whose lives he’s affected, meant nothing to him.
“They were just objects for him to use for his pleasure and that every single quality that he had in his life he used for evil purposes. So I felt nothing.”
Mr Harvey also said it was “difficult to listen to the things that he’s done to all of those children, many of them much, much worse than what I had done to me. Some of them my friends”.
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He said it had taken tens of thousands of hours to “prove that this man is what he is. He’s a paedophile”.
“And he spent his whole life trying to get access to young children.”
He added that everybody who knew him, from his family, his friends, his colleagues, “when they think of his name will think paedophile and that’s what he is”.
“I don’t waste my energy thinking about what he is as a person, he’s a paedophile and that defines him forever.”
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The trial heard that Burrows had obtained positions of authority and systematically abused 24 boys from the 1960s to the mid-1990s.
He had worked as a housemaster at a school for vulnerable children and befriended other youngsters through amateur radio clubs.
Burrows was initially charged in May 1997 but failed to attend a hearing later that year.
He remained on the wanted list until police using facial recognition software matched him to a man using the name Peter Smith. He had stolen the identity of a terminally ill friend to obtain a passport.
Burrows described “living in paradise” in emails found after his eventual arrest, written after he fled to Thailand.
