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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Ex-US missionary jailed for abusing Kenyan orphans | Ex-US missionary jailed for abusing Kenyan orphans |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| A former US missionary has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for sexually abusing children at an orphanage in Kenya. | A former US missionary has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for sexually abusing children at an orphanage in Kenya. |
| Matthew Lane Durham, 21, had committed "heinous crimes on the most vulnerable victims", the US court said. | Matthew Lane Durham, 21, had committed "heinous crimes on the most vulnerable victims", the US court said. |
| Durham targeted orphans while working as a volunteer at the Upendo Children's Home in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, between April and June 2014. | Durham targeted orphans while working as a volunteer at the Upendo Children's Home in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, between April and June 2014. |
| He is the latest charity worker in Kenya to be convicted of sex crimes. | He is the latest charity worker in Kenya to be convicted of sex crimes. |
| The BBC's Abdinoor Aden in Nairobi says that Upendo Children's Home, where Durham was accused of abusing more than 10 children - some as young as four years, has welcomed the sentence by an Oklahoma court. | |
| It has put up a video on YouTube with the headline: "Upendo Children Celebrate Justice!!", showing the orphanage's founder telling her colleagues in Nairobi about the sentencing, which she had attended. | |
| "It is a new beginning for them," Eunice Menja said. | |
| In court, Ms Menja fought back tears as she read a statement, saying that the sexual abuse carried out by Durham was "not only a betrayal of the Upendo mission but of the trust Upendo placed in him", the Associated Press news agency reports. | |
| "Matthew Durham defiled the children. Matthew has no remorse. After he got caught, he still denied [the charges],'' she is quoted as saying. | "Matthew Durham defiled the children. Matthew has no remorse. After he got caught, he still denied [the charges],'' she is quoted as saying. |
| 'Worst nightmare' | |
| Although Durham said he was innocent of the charges, he added that he was sorry that the accusations against him had damaged the orphanage. | Although Durham said he was innocent of the charges, he added that he was sorry that the accusations against him had damaged the orphanage. |
| "The Upendo kids do not deserve this,'' Durham said, AP reports. | "The Upendo kids do not deserve this,'' Durham said, AP reports. |
| Judge David Russell said Durham, who appeared in court in a prison-issued orange jumpsuit, was the abused children's "worst nightmare come true", it reported. | |
| The court also ordered the former charity worker, who was arrested in 2014 at the home of his parents in the US after fleeing Kenya, to pay restitution of $15,863 (£11,000). | |
| Last year, UK charity boss Simon Harris was jailed for more than 17 years by a UK court for abusing street children between 1996 and 2013 in the agricultural town of Gilgil in Kenya's Rift Valley. | |
| Last week, British Airways agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to children who were sexually abused by one of its pilots, Simon Wood, in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. | |
| Wood took his own life in 2013. |