Paedophile Richard Burrows, 81, sentenced to 46 years in prison

Burrows, 81, had previously admitted to a further 43 charges.

Abuse claims lawyer Dino Nocivelli welcomed the conviction but says the case is cause for serious concern.

The Standard has reported that when passing an extended sentence, the Honorary Recorder of Chester Judge Steven Everett told Burrows: “I recognise you will not be released. You are a despicable man. You have ruined countless lives.”

Burrows had abused boys as young as nine years old, with the abuse taking place during his time as a housemaster at a Cheshire boarding school and as a scout master in the West Midlands from the late 1960s to the mid 1990s.  

In 1997, Burrows fled the UK having been due to stand trial over alleged child sex offences. Nearly three decades later, police officers were able to track Burrows using specialist software to search for images online and discovered that he had been using the name Peter Smith, a terminally ill acquaintance of Burrows’ whose identity he had stolen and used to illegally obtain a passport.

Police had been due to begin the extradition process, before finding that Burrows had planned to return to the UK.

In his recent trial, the court heard that Burrows had fled to Thailand because he wanted to go sailing and claimed he had not carried out the offences, before returning to the UK after 27 years due to running out of money.  

Dino Nocivelli said:

"Whilst I welcome Burrows’ lengthy sentence, this shocking case saw justice delayed for nearly 30 years. Victims were left without closure whilst their abuser freely walked the streets.

“Victims will rightly be questioning how their abuser was able to evade the authorities for so long.”