Feature Image Credits: Oswego Alumni Association

61 year old Christian missionary Gregory Dow, who ran Dow Family Children’s Home near Boito in Kenya, was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for abusing four underage girls in Kenya in his care and was directed to pay $16,000 in restitution, reports Hindu Post.

Gregory Dow hails from Pennsylvania, USA, and he operated an orphanage funded by the U.S. Churches and faith-based groups in Kenya for almost a decade.

He left Kenya in 2017, after authorities began investigating allegations of sexual abuse, confirmed Federal US prosecutors. 

Michael Driscoll, Special Agent in charge of the FBI Philadelphia Division, said in a statement, “He abused four girls, including two who were only 11 when the abuse began. If he thought no one would care because these were underprivileged Black children he victimized, this investigation and today’s sentence have most emphatically proved him wrong”.

In his plea agreement, Dow admitted that he had abused four girls multiple times from October 2013 to September 2017 and the FBI agent Driscoll called Gregory Dow, “the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing,”.

However, the most disturbing aspect is that Dow in 1996 had pled guilty in the case of a sexual abuse in Iowa and received two years’ probation, He was ordered to register as a sex offender for a decade by the U.S. attorney’s office.

But he was still able to operate an orphanage where poor and vulnerable children will be in his care.

Dow’s ultimate fall from the pulpit came when a Kenyan woman named Margaret Ruto who worked as a nurse in the US had returned to the area near the orphanage and heard the story of sexual abuse from the girls under Dow’s care.

Taking down the testimonies of the abused girls, it was established that Dow had sexually abused at least four teenage girls between 2013 and 2017.

But what is even more enraging is the active participation of Dow’s wife who also runs the Home with him. 

According to Ruto,“The defendant’s wife even transported the victims to a medical clinic to have birth control devices implanted into their arms, which allowed Dow to perpetrate his crimes without fear of impregnating his victims”.

Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said, “Under the guise of faith-based charity work benefiting orphaned children, Gregory Dow travelled halfway around the world to prey on incredibly vulnerable victims,” said  “His crimes are nearly incomprehensible in their depravity.”

Sexual abuse cases by Christian missionaries in India

In India too, sexual abuse of children in Christian run orphanages is quite rampant and one of the most sickening cases was that of the Grace Home, run by Pastor Jacob John.

Under his care, 53 children from North-Eastern states like Manipur and Nagaland were rescued by Rajasthan Commission for Protection of Child Rights. Unfortunately, 4 children died due to the torture they had to endure and a number of minor girls were sexually exploited, with one getting pregnant.

What is even more sickening is that Jacob John also sexually abused many children who suffered from severe physical deformities and mental retardation. However, in India, it is very difficult to arrest them, let alone convict such people, due to the clout enjoyed by the Christian missionaries.

In another case similar to Gregory Dow’s, a 68 year old British citizen named John Patrick Bridge, who was running an orphanage in Odisha’s western district of Jharsuguda, was arrested for sexually abusing a minor boy in his shelter home.

In Tamil Nadu, a Christian preacher named Sam Jaisunder belonging to Scripture Union, a Christian missionary group which preaches to children in schools, has been accused of sending inappropriate messages to teenage girls.

(With inputs from Hindu Post and BBC)

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