An Oklahoma volunteer who helped at a children’s home in Kenya, has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for sexually assaulting three girls and one boy while working at the home.
“In a span of just 33 days,” prosecutors wrote in a letter to the court , the suspect, 21 year old Matthew Lane Durham, “raped three girls — ages 5,9, and 15- at least 8 times. During that same time period, he sexually molested a 12-year-old boy twice.”
Prosecutors also added that Durham, “not only forcefully sexually abused these children,” but “he psychologically damaged them by taking advantage of their trust.”
Back in June, a Jury found Durham guilt on seven counts of sexual abuse charges . However the judge acquitted him on three of the counts in January, alleging that the prosecutors “failed to establish that he engaged in a ‘sexual act’ with the children in those charges.”
In 2014, Durham arrived at the Kenyan Center, Upendo Children Centre, to volunteer with neglected children. He had volunteered there three times before. According to the complaint, upon his arrival, the suspect asked to stay at an “overflow bunk” in the school rather than an off site facility with sponsor families, so he could be in a “better position to assist the children.”
It was a school care taker that began to notice strange behavior from Durham, noting that he would give lingering embraces, and even lay beside some of the children at night. Eventually, he was confronted by school leaders who held his passport, and obtained a confession.
Durham’s attorney, Stephen Jones told CNN following the sentencing, that he plans on appealing the court’s decision, and that the confession was coerced so that he could get his passport back.
