A British former public school teacher has been found guilty of sexually abusing street children in Kenya.
Simon Harris was found guilty of seven charges of indecent and sexual assault on the youngsters in Gilgil in Kenya’s Rift Valley.
He was also convicted at Birmingham Crown Court of four counts of possessing indecent images of children.
The offences were committed while Harris was running a gap year charity he set up in the East African country in the 1990s.
Under Section 72 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, British citizens can be tried for sexual offences committed abroad against children under 16 if it is also an offence in that country. This is the first time the relevant section has been applied to a case in Africa.
Prosecuting, Kevin Hegarty QC said Harris lured street boys to his home, known locally as “The Green House”, by offering them food and shelter.
He told the jury: “A few years ago there was uproar in Kenya and big displacement of people, and many families were broken up and children abandoned. Many of the children made their way to a town called Gilgil.
“In Gilgil the children were living chaotic and desperate lives.
“It’s upon those children that the defendant preyed to encourage them with food, money to come to his house.
“He would drive to Gilgil in his white Land Rover and pick up boys who lived on the street in appalling conditions.”
They would stay at Simon Harris’s house for a few days, he said and “he might take a fancy to a particular one and they’d end up in his bed.”
Giving evidence via satellite link to Birmingham Crown Court, one boy described being attacked by Mr Harris, from Leominster in Herefordshire.
The victim, who was nine at the time, described to the court Mr Harris “doing bad manners” to him.
Giving evidence through an interpreter, the boy told the jury that he had been told to lie on the bed. He then described how the former public school housemaster had removed his vest and shorts before subjecting him to a painful ordeal that lasted about 10 minutes.
Before the trial, Harris admitted six offences of indecent assault against three boys aged between 13 and 14 when he was a teacher at Shebbear College, Devon, in the 1980s.
This may be the only case which has come to light, because of the extra-territorial nature of our Sexual Offences Act, but it illustrates that predatory homosexuals from Europe and America are a real danger to African children and why African nations need to have strong measures in place to discourage them.
I should have thought it was paedophiles who were the danger. But no, turns out it’s just the gays. Nice to see you back on form, Steve
A paedophile is attracted to pre-pubescent boys (or girls). A hebephile (or ephebophile), like Simon Harris, is attracted to teens in adolescence. And that is a mainstream trait in the homosexual network.
This is Christian Voice, not Sexual Voice. What has all this got to do with Christianity ? Was Simon Harris a Christian ?
It’s a common misconception that Christians should only be interested or involved in things ‘Christian’. Christ said (talking to his earthly brothers, not his disciples):
John 7:7 The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.
And then to his disciples:
John 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
In the Proverbs:
Prov 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.
From the Prophets:
Jeremiah 29:7 And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
I see ……
It appears Mr Harris is indeed christian. As is Matthew Durham,a missionary who went to Kenya to rape children,he has been convicted thankfully. One of the children he raped was four.
Then there is Tyron Banks,a Pastor who raped a 13 year old girl. Another Pastor,Joseph Hall caught having abused over a dozen kids.
The Endrei family of pastors,father and son,both convicted sex offenders. Dennis Myers,Christiasn youth leader,given 30 years for child porn among other things.
It is too easy for those with a sexual interest in children to pose as Christians and even to become pastors and missionaries, sadly.
But they are Christians. If they were Muslims, you would say they were Muslims. It looks rather disingenuous to the outside world to insist that Christians who go astray are not really Christians. If somebody is a non-Christian, it’s not available to other non-Christians to claim that he’s not really a non-Christian.
I know it makes sense to do this if you are convinced that Christians must be near perfect, and that only near Christians can be near perfect. People may well hold this view, but it’s not at all convincing to everybody else.
I was advised by email that the new comments have been added here,, the first time that process has worked for a very long time.
The mistake you are making is to assume every religion demands the moral transformation that Christianity demands.
They do not.
In particular, one can be an extortioner, run a prostitution racket or a drugs ring, indulge in electoral or VAT fraud, be involved in fact with all kinds of crime and so long as one recites the ‘Shahadah’, does one’s prayers five times a day and undertakes to go to Mecca, pay some alms and fast during Ramadan, one is a good Muslim.
This is partly because Mohammed is a far less demanding model to follow than Christ and partly because Islam is a religion of doing things rather than aspiring to be holy and righteous.
Hinduism falls into the same pattern, with the added demand of renouncing the world as an illusion, being so ‘enlightened’ and not needing further rebirth.
Only in Christianity do we see the understanding that God became man and walked this earth, suffered and died for us to forgive our sins, enable us to live a new, transformed moral life by the power of the Holy Spirit and then face the coming once and for all judgment with confidence.
So no, those guys are not Christians by any reasonable definition.
You unfairly smear all gay people with Harris’s crimes but fail to answer Rox’s question – was Harris a Christian? We can only assume from your avoidance that he was.
Do try not to be completely silly.
What a very clever response!
“A hebephile (or ephebophile), like Simon Harris, is attracted to teens in adolescence. And that is a mainstream trait in the homosexual network.”
You’d know all about “the homosexual network”, would you? Have you ever seen Page Three of The Sun? I suppose that’s there to cater for lesbians. You make up facts to fit your agenda – what the rest of us would call lying!
Er, I’m not sure the Sun has has ever run a picture of a pubertal teenager on page 3. But I’ll bow to your greater knowledge of the genre.
Let’s admit it. Every organisation dealing with children, whether religious or secular has had problems with sexual predators. This is not a Catholic problem or a Protestant problem or a homosexual problem. It’s a human problem. Blaming one section of the population for underage sexual abuse is a red herring.
I think the actual problem here is that homosexuals seem drawn to jobs or out-of-work activities which place them in proximity to those to whom they are attracted. That will account for abusing priests, scout masters, and school teachers like Harris.
Stephen, I think you are confusing homosexuality with sexual predation of children. The problem is not that homosexuals (or heterosexuals, for that matter) are attracted to activities that involve children, but that people who are sexually attracted to children are drawn to these activities. Also, it’s important to realise that it is not just boys who are at risk. Girls are also vulnerable.
By accepting that the sexual predation of children comes from sexual predators we are in a stronger position to protect the young. Scapegoating homosexuals misses the target and targets many who are not responsible for this abuse. It also risks obscuring the fact that girls are also targeted by sexual predators.
It is not scapegoating homosexuals to conclude that they are disproportionately represented in sexual crime particularly that involving young people. That is because they are drawn to boys around the age when they were first interfered with. It’s called ‘identification with the aggressor’. There is also a cult of youth in the homosexual network (may be related) that finds no real parallel in heterosexual culture. Homosexual males are disproportionately represented in mass murder as well, but that’s a bit off topic. The bottom line, if the expression does not fall too awkwardly, is that if there is a homosexual male who wants a position or voluntary post near children, it’s wise to say ‘no’. Sadly, our law no longer allows that response (I don’t know what your equality and diversity laws say in Australia), so more young people will be at risk.
I agreed with Michael Glass on this before, as Stephen knows, and I do again. Has Stephen any reliable figures to show that in the UK more underage boys are abused than girls ? In several well-publicised cases recently, it is huge numbers of girls who have been involved, although of course there have been cases with boys too. What are the actual figures ? Would the BBC have been wise to avoid homosexual disc jockeys ? I don’t see any evidence for this at all.
Even if there is a larger number of boys abused, I don’t think this is a good reason to place tight restrictions on homosexual men but turn a bit of a blind eye to the activities of heterosexual men in this field.
When I researched the figures for my book ‘The Sexual Dead-End’ abuse on boys and girls was roughly 50 / 50. Given the tiny proportion of homosexual men in the population, that means they put themselves about, to be crude, degrees of magnitude more than heterosexual men. But even that is assuming the men who abuse pubertal girls are ‘heterosexual’. I should define ‘heterosexual’ as the ability to form a sexual and emotional attachment with an adult of the opposite sex.
Stephen, where is your evidence that homosexuals are disproportionately represented in sexual crimes involving young people? Where is your evidence that the cult of youth is more prevalent amongst homosexuals than heterosexuals? Where is your evidence that homosexuals are more often mass murderers than others?
In Australia, the Catholic Church itself admitted that there may be some connection between celibacy and child sexual abuse. http://www.religionnews.com/2014/12/12/australians-suggest-celibacy-played-role-clergy-abuse-scandal/ However, I am not aware of any evidence that links homosexuality disproportionately with your other accusations.
I stress that this is not a matter of condoning or approving homosexual practices, but it is a matter of being fair.
I went through all the evidence in my book The Sexual Dead-End.
No, the ‘Catholic Church’ did not ‘admit’ a possible connection between celibacy and child sexual abuse.
If you read the report carefully (something I was always very careful to do for my book) you will find it was a ‘church advisory group’ which said: ‘Obligatory celibacy may also have contributed to abuse.’
They adduced no evidence for that, it was merely an assertion.
Wasn’t “The Sexual Bell-End” published two and a half decades ago? Meaning the “research” for it is older still. Still, hardly the first book you dreary Christians think is immutable despite later and better evidence
You’re a card, you are, Monica, aren’t you? You have some evidence showing ‘the gays’ have become all moral since we started pandering to their every whim? Thought not.
However, the Roman Catholic church in Australia has moved on since Stephen gathered his evidence.
“ By Jonathan Pearlman, Sydney, and Nick Squires in Rome
8:04PM GMT 12 Dec 2014
Priests’ vows of celibacy may have led to paedophilia, the Roman Catholic Church in Australia has said, in what is believed to be the first such admission by Catholic officials worldwide. “
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/11289629/Catholic-Church-in-Australia-links-celibacy-to-child-abuse.html
“Its conclusions were quickly dismissed by the Vatican.”
Rox that is the same report as Mr Glass cited. It’s just an ‘advisory body’ coming up with a ‘might-have’. However, I cannot help observing that a man who is not attracted to women might view a vow of celibacy, implying in its context no heterosexual contact, as no big deal. That is not say that there are those who take that vow honestly and out of a true desire for holiness. I think a celibate priesthood is unbiblical, but who am I against so many?
Sorry, misunderstanding.
” If you read the report carefully (something I was always very careful to do for my book) …”
I think it makes a bit of difference if you take that “read” as present or past — with read, like put, it could be either.
Anyway, I carelessly took it that you had read THE report, THAT report mentioned by Mr Glass for your book, and so did not realise it was the same one so recently reported that it could not be part of the evidence for your book.
But if the Daily Telegraph report’s “admission by Catholic officials” is at all accurate, that must count for something, even if the Vatican denies it. (But they would wouldn’t they, to quote Mandy Rice-Davis topically).
Since 1889 and until last year, homosexuality was not illegal in Vatican City and the age of consent for boys and girls was 12, the lowest in Europe. (In Spain it’s 13, but in surrounding Italy it’s14). Now the Pope has whacked it up to 18 (unless a 14 year old girl is married, of course — not much consolation to the priests) .This isn’t really so tough, because it could hardly be easier for the Vatican’s teenagers to escape into Italy in the evening, unless they are locked up by the priests who outnumber them.
Newspapers tend to make things appear more shocking or controversial than they actually are.
The discussion seems to have strayed a long way from the sexual predation of children. Yes, Stephen was right in his observation that the admission that celibacy might have had something to do with the abuse of children in Catholic children came from a particular advisory body. However, this body was given the job of investigating and reporting on the abuse and I don’t think that its findings can be airily dismissed just because it did not and cannot speak for the whole church. However, I am not aware that any responsible body has made similar claims about homosexuals.
It is one thing to regard homosexuals as sinners but an accusation that homosexuals as a group are dangerous to children needs to be backed up with firm evidence.
I agree. Many cases where boys are abused by masters in boarding schools involve married housemasters, who presumably are heterosexuals according to Stephen’s own definition, having “the ability to form a sexual and emotional attachment with an adult of the opposite sex”, not perfect perhaps, but many marriages are not perfect. By Stephen’s definition, Oscar Wilde must have been a heterosexual, and he had a son to prove it. Of course, many people have bisexual tendencies (especially young women, it seems), but you can’t possibly claim that they are specially liable to paedophilia as well. Yet most of us like children, and it’s more of a fault not to. Insofar as “paedo philia” means liking children, the most important thing is what it is that people actually do with the children, not their feelings towards adults or children. I remember my father saying complacently of some of my sister’s teachers: “It’s a good thing that women like that exist, because they take the girls camping”.