US missionary pleads guilty to sex crimes in Kenya

An American Christian missionary has pleaded guilty of sexually abusing young girls at the orphanage he started in Kenya. 61-year old Gregory Dow admitted to four counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor in a foreign place. The orphanage was in operation from 2008 to 2017 when Mr. Dow left Kenya.

The Kenyan authorities and FBI investigated him. He was charged in the US. Dow founded the orphanage in western Kenya in 2008. According to local newspaper LNP, the orphanage was partly funded by churches in Lancaster County in the US state of Pennsylvania. He is accused of assaulting girls from 2013. LNP reports two of the girls were 11, one was 12 and another was 13.

US Department of Justice in a statement, “The defendant purported to be a Christian missionary who cared for these children and asked them to call him ‘Dad’. But instead of being a father figure, he preyed on their youth and vulnerability.” The statement adds Dow fled Kenya in September 2017 when the allegations of assault came to light. FBI acted off a tip and Dow was charged in July 2019, according to the statement.

US Attorney William McSwain said, “Gregory Dow hid behind his supposed faith on the other side of the world, hoping no-one in the US would know or care about the children he abused. He was wrong.” The prosecutors pointed that Dow, in 1996 pleaded guilty to assault with intent to commit sexual abuse. He received two years’ probation and was ordered to register as a sex offender for a decade. AP news agency reports Dow is scheduled to be sentenced on 29 September