A 72-year-old pensioner was found guilty in a British court of raping two Kenyan girls while 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 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 was convicted of nine child abuse offences,” the agency said.
An NCA and Kenyan police investigation found Morris 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, 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 transferred money to people in Kenya “in exchange for helping him to prove his innocence”.
Kenyan police were not immediately available for comment.
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