A paedophile scoutmaster who spent nearly three decades “living in paradise” on the run in Thailand has had nine years shaved off his jail term due to a judge’s error. Former boarding school housemaster and scout leader Richard Burrows, 83, was originally jailed for 46 years in April for a horrific series of sexual offences against 24 boys in his care from the late 1960s until the mid-1990s.
Burrows, who famously escaped justice by fleeing to Thailand in 1997, was found guilty of 54 offences by a jury in March. These included four counts of “buggery” – charges that would be prosecuted as rape under modern British law. The depraved predator, who is expected to die behind bars, also pleaded guilty to 43 counts, including possessing indecent images of children and four counts related to obtaining passports under a false name. Now, it has emerged that Burrows – who was finally seized after flying back to Britain in 2024 – has had nine years of his jail term quietly quashed due to a sentencing mistake.
The reduction follows a hearing at the Court of Appeal in June, in which Burrows’ defence team argued that the original trial judge erred in separating two of the offences. They claimed the massive 46-year term was “manifestly excessive” when viewed in the totality of the case.
Senior appeal judges Lord Justice Edis, Mr Justice Choudhury, and Mrs Justice Norton DBE threw out the first part of the challenge. However, they ultimately agreed with Burrows’ lawyers that the total sentence was neither “just nor proportionate”. As a result, the judges overturned a nine-year sentence linked to a single count of attempted buggery.
The penalty, originally ordered to run consecutively with his other crimes, was substituted with a concurrent sentence. As it will now be served at the exact same time, Burrows’ final sentence has dropped to 38 years in prison, according to court documents seen by the Liverpool Echo.
It remains almost certain that Burrows, who has cancer, will not reach any stage where he might be considered for release.
Burrows became one of Britain’s most wanted fugitives when he skipped bail in December 1997. He fled to Thailand under the alias “Peter Leslie Smith” after stealing an acquaintance’s identity to secure a fake passport, living undetected for 27 years. His decades on the run finally ended in March 2024 when he ran out of money and flew back to the UK, where border police arrested the frail predator at Heathrow Airport.
His horrific crimes date back to his time as a housemaster at Danesford Children’s Home in Cheshire between 1969 and 1971. He also targeted young boys across the West Midlands and West Mercia between 1968 and 1995, primarily using his role as a local scout leader to abuse children aged 10 to 15.
In court, Burrows showed zero remorse, bizarrely telling jurors he was a “good paedophile” who “loved boys” and claimed he did not harm them.
Cheshire Police Detective Inspector Eleanor Atkinson branded Burrows a “coward” who spent decades “living in paradise” while his victims suffered.
Tragically, police confirmed that four of Burrows’ victims passed away before ever getting to see him face justice.