In Thailand, Richard Burrows sought refuge and managed to hide for nearly 30 years.
Having committed child abuse, he fled the UK to escape prosecution But the severity of his crimes did not prompt him to lead a low-profile life – far from it.
On Phuket’s sandy shores, he became quite well-known and liked. Everyone knew him as Peter Smith, an identity he’d adopted from a passport that wasn’t his.
After failing to attend the start of his trial for alleged child sex offences at Chester Crown Court in 1997, his whereabouts remained a mystery.
His abuse spanned from the 1960s to the 1990s, with some offences occurring at a children’s school in Cheshire, and others through his involvement with the scouts in the Midlands.
It would take 27 years for him to be captured, eventually arrested at Heathrow Airport.

He settled in Thailand, establishing a familiar routine and a wide circle of acquaintances. He regularly dined at a small roadside restaurant, often ordering fish and chips.
The restaurant’s owner, Pakorn Sanwongwan, said the man they knew was kind and generous, with no inkling of his past.
“I’m very shocked because from my perspective, he was a good person. For the past 24 years, he had recommended our restaurant to lots of people and brought us new customers,” he said.
His wife, Supaporn, added they were shocked when just a few months ago he announced he was “going to the UK and never coming back”.
It’s easy to see how many people were duped. He kept the reality of what he’d done largely hidden. And his was not a life lived under the radar.

Burrows was involved in the local sailing community. His friends say he’d worked with local schools. And he’d worked in local media.
Burrows lived in a container, just a short drive from the coastline. But things began to unravel when financial difficulties arose.
He started confiding in a very small number of close friends, revealing that he needed to return to the UK to see family and was struggling financially.
“Ben”, not his real name, was among those confidantes.
He said: “I knew him for 25 years. Only about three to four years ago, he started sort of revealing a few things that he’s not actually who his passport says he is and that he was sought by the UK authorities for some allegations, apparently, he’s done.”
Ben says he had no idea of the severity of the charges against him. The man he knew was a kind soul, generous and supportive to many he met.
There were signs of his attraction to young people, but it didn’t raise any alarms.
“Peter” had younger companions who cooked for him at home and sometimes financed their education, according to Ben.
“Obviously, it was visible that he liked the younger generation. But I never thought he would target minors,” he said.

All offences were committed during Burrows’ time in the UK, and no charges have been brought against him in Thailand.
Had Ben known the details of Burrows’ sordid past, he may have thought differently. But Burrows was living a lie, enjoying a secret life in the sun.
Remarkably, Burrows went undetected for decades, his visa based on a fake passport, consistently renewed.
It remains unclear what motivated his attempt to return to the UK, a move that led to his arrest at Heathrow.
Some people we spoke to believe he had run out of money and wanted to see his family. Others suspected he was trying to make peace with his past.

    <p>Finally, he has been brought to justice. But his victims are left to cope with the horrendous aftermath of his abuse.
    While he is now behind bars, they must also grapple with the fact that their abuser enjoyed a free and full life for so long.
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