UK missionary found guilty of sex charges against young girls.
March 4, 2016 ·
A CHURCH missionary who said sex crime claims against him were dishonest and untruthful is facing jail after being found guilty of the allegations.
The Reverend Craig Burrows – awarded an MBE for his charity work with underprivileged children in the Philippines – looked stunned when he was convicted.
The 50-year-old former Richmond School pupil shook his head and stared at the jury panel when the verdicts were announced at Teesside Crown Court.
He was given bail at the end of his seven-day trial, but was warned by Judge Tony Briggs: “That should not be taken as an indication of your sentence.”
Burrows, now of Canterbury Road, Sudbury, Suffolk, will be dealt with next month once a background report has been prepared by a probation official.
The jury of six men and six women found him guilty of six charges of indecent assault and three counts of indecency with a child dating back 30 years.
When he was arrested, Burrows claimed his accusers had been “put up to it” because he was in dispute with his ex-wife over his plans to sell their home.
He spent more than 25 years working in the Philippines and bought the property there after becoming a missionary on behalf of the Assemblies of God.
Burrows told detectives: “There is no way these allegations are honest or truthful. These things did not happen. These girls were put up to it.”
He also claimed someone had been paid to make an attempt on his life after he himself went to investigate allegations of sexual abuse in the Philippines.
He denied staying in dormitories with children he met there, and bleated: “I have been destroyed by these allegations. I just want this to be over.”
Giving evidence, he told the jury he had established five charities in the Philippines and done a lot of work as a result of natural disasters.
Burrows said he had obtained funding from the Asian Students Christian Trust to set up a school in the Philippines for so-called “rubbish tip” children.
He had also been funded by the Zetland Christian Centre, now the Influence Church, in Reeth Road, Richmond, North Yorkshire, the court While living in Richmond in the mid-1980s, Burrows sexually assaulted two girls who had been invited stay with him and his then-wife at their home.
One of the complainants told police that the defendant had put his hand on her vagina and invited her to get into bath with him while he was naked.
But Burrows, who at the time said he was employed as a security guard at Catterick Garrison, denied he had been at home, and had been out working shifts.
