A paedophile who spent nearly three decades on the run, leaving his victims to suffer, has been jailed for 46 years.
Richard Burrows, 80, formerly of Birmingham, was convicted of 54 child sex abuse charges and admitted 43 more at Chester Crown Court in March.
The court heard he abused 24 boys, some as young as nine, while a housemaster at a Cheshire boarding school and through involvement with scouts in the West Midlands between 1968 and 1995.
The jury heard one of his accusers told police he “hated” the abuse, which would happen as much as two to three times per week, but said he “could do nothing about it”, adding “I was frightened and young”.
Judge Steven Everett told Burrows at the sentencing on Wednesday: “You are a despicable man”.
When defence barrister Philip Clemo told the court that Burrows would spend his last days in prison, Everett said: “I don’t suppose there’ll be anyone who’ll mourn that.”
Everett said that Burrows had given evidence that was “awful”, particularly in regards to Burrows’ claim that there were “good paedophiles and bad paedophiles”.
The judge said he “suspects the jury will have been repulsed” by Burrows using the “obnoxious expression”.
He also remarked that Burrows had “lied [through] your back teeth” in police interviews, and when Burrows nodded at him, the judge replied: “I see you nodding – it’s too late now.”
Burrows was on the run for 28 years, fleeing to Thailand and changing his identity, before returning to the UK in 2024 only after running out of money.
In mitigation, Mr Clemo accepted the victims had had an extensive delay in getting justice, but that Burrows came back of his own free will and didn’t “have to come back in shackles”. He also told the court that Burrows had cancer, but “the kind of cancer you die with rather than from”.
The judge replied: “If he still had money and he wasn’t ill he would still be in Thailand now. He felt he had no option [but] to come back.”
