A British former public school teacher who sexually abused Kenyan street children after luring them to his lavish home with offers of food, money and the promise of education has been jailed for 17 years and four months.
Simon Harris, who ran an educational charity in the east African country, picked up boys in his Land Rover and took them to his home, known as the Green House, where he subjected them to terrifying and humiliating sexual abuse.
Judge Philip Parker QC, told Harris, 55, he was obviously intelligent and charismatic, which had given him “a veneer of respectability”, but he had used this to conceal a “self-centred arrogance”.
The former classics teacher did not look up as the judge continued: “You designed your life to be close to boys; it suited you to be in education,” he said. “It gave you kudos and it also provided a source of boys.”
Parker said Harris had targeted youngsters who were “amongst the most vulnerable in the world”. He said: “You assumed a hallowed position among the locals. You were revered as someone who could provide the gift of education. You were answerable to no one.”
The judge said Harris’s charity work in education meant “no-one batted an eyelid” when he washed boys and allowed youngsters to sleep in his bedroom at his remote home. “You walked on water. But none of them knew you had a sexual motive.”
Parker said his Kenyan victims had been left “used, degraded, and humiliated”, adding: “The mental scars will almost certainly never heal.”
Harris, of Pudleston near Leominster in Herefordshire, was convicted of three indecent assaults and five sexual assaults. One victim was thought to be as young as nine. He was also found guilty of four charges of possessing indecent images of children.
One of the victims who made a complaint against Harris is believed to have killed himself before the jury at Birmingham crown court reached its verdicts in December.
Harris became familiar with Kenya in the 1980s after taking British children there on trekking expeditions. He came up with the idea of running a charity in Kenya – called VAE – giving young British people the chance to teach local children during gap years.
In the witness box, Harris claimed he lived for education. “It’s fundamental,” he said. “Education is the most important thing for development in the third world.” But the prosecution said he drove into the town of Gilgil and enticed boys living rough or in very poor conditions into his white Land Rover.
Back at the Green House, he sexually abused the boys and threatened them with death if they told anyone what he had done. The court heard he beat some boys with sticks, pled them with alcohol and drugs and urinated in their mouths.
Before the trial, Harris admitted indecently assaulting three teenage pupils in the 1980s at a private school, Shebbear College in Devon, where he taught Latin. The judge said those victims had been left haunted and revolted. He has served a 15-month jail term after being convicted in 2009 of possessing indecent images of children.
Harris was exposed in a Channel 4 Unreported World documentary, which led to a British police investigation. In some circumstances, British citizens can be tried in the UK for serious offences committed abroad.
The human rights organisation the International Justice Mission, which worked with law enforcement agencies to support the victims, welcomed the sentence.
Chief executive Terry Tennens said: “Today’s sentence is a landmark moment for the UK justice system and for all the organisations and authorities who worked together to secure the imprisonment of this man. The tough sentence sends a clear message that those who abuse vulnerable, young children will be held accountable.”
Police described Harris as a calculating and prolific offender and said there could be many more victims in Kenya who had not come forward.