British court convicts pensioner for raping girls in Kenya

NAIROBI - A 72-year-old pensioner has been found guilty in a British court of raping two Kenyan girls while he was on holiday in the East African nation, the latest example of cross-border collaboration to stamp out child sex offences by Western tourists.

Britain’s National Crime Agency said Keith Morris, a retired locksmith from the northern city of Hull, was convicted of nine child abuse offences on Tuesday in Leeds Crown Court after a trial in which Kenyan witnesses testified via video link.

“A Hull man who befriended and helped vulnerable families in rural Kenya to gain access to their children has been convicted of nine child abuse offences,” the agency said.

An NCA and Kenyan police investigation found Morris had visited a village in Kilifi, a popular coastal holiday spot, for many years and “frequently took local children away for trips, where he would buy them gifts and stay with them in hotel rooms”.

Morris, who is due to be sentenced on July 17, abused underage girls in 2016 and 2017, the NCA said.

He was also convicted on two counts of obstructing justice after the NCA found he had transferred money to people in Kenya “in exchange for helping him to prove his innocence”.

Kenyan police were not immediately available for comment.  - (ANA) -

AB/ANA/23 May 2018 - - -