This archive report was first published on 17 June 2020.
On June 17, 2020, American Christian missionary Gregory Dow pleaded guilty to sexually abusing underage girls at an orphanage he founded in Kenya between 2008 and 2017.
According to court documents, Dow, 61, admitted to four counts of illicit sexual conduct with minors aged between 11 and 13 while operating the orphanage.
"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," said the US Department of Justice in a statement.
Dow was investigated by both the FBI and Kenyan authorities and was accused of assaulting the girls from 2013. He fled the country in September 2017 when the allegations of assault came to light.
Notably, this was not the first time Dow was accused of assault. In 1996, he pleaded guilty to assault with intent to commit sexual abuse in Iowa and received two years' probation and registered as a sex offender until 2006.
Dow founded the Kenya orphanage in 2008 with the help of churches in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, US.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on September 29.
