A former public school teacher has been convicted of sexually abusing vulnerable young Kenyan street boys.
Charity boss Simon Harris, 55, had denied luring vulnerable boys using food, money and the promise of schooling to his home in the East African country where prosecutors said the abuse happened. The court heard how Harris used his position as a charity worker to abuse the youngsters.
Harris, of Pudleston in Herefordshire, has been on trial at Birmingham Crown Court for nine weeks in a case that has seen testimony from witnesses over a 6,500-mile video link.
The jury unanimously found Harris guilty of five sex assaults, including against a victim as young as six, and on two counts of indecent assault. He was also found to be guilty of four counts of possessing indecent images of children.
However, jurors acquitted him of seven charges including rape, attempted rape and sexual assault.
Judge Philip Parker QC has told the jury he will accept majority verdicts on the remaining five offences, which include an allegation of rape against a child under 13.
Harris had faced 23 charges in total, including 18 allegations relating to assaults. The offences were committed while Harris was running a gap year charity he set up in Kenya in the 1990s.
During his trial, prosecutors said he lured street boys to his home, known locally as “The Green House”, by offering them food and shelter. The court heard he would drive into Gilgil in Kenya’s Rift Valley and encourage street children into his Land Rover with food and money.
The abuse came to light when a Channel 4 documentary team making a film about the plight of Gilgil’s street children was given information about his activities.
Before the trial, Harris admitted six offences of indecent assault against three boys aged between 13 and 14 when he was a teacher at Shebbear College, Devon, in the 1980s.
He had originally faced 22 charges relating to assaults in Kenya, but Judge Philip Parker QC told jurors four had been removed from the indictment mid-trial.
It is the first time new legislation has been used to successfully prosecute a British citizen for offences committed in Africa.
