Richard Burrows, an 80-year-old former Scout leader, is on trial for serious child sex offences. He is accused of systematically abusing boys he came into contact with while he worked as a housemaster at a school in Cheshire during the 1960s. The jury has been informed that he faced multiple charges of buggery, indecency with minors, attempted buggery, and numerous indecent assaults against ten victims, all aged between nine and fifteen at the time of the incidents that spanned from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s. Burrows was apprehended after eluding authorities for nearly three decades, having fled the UK in 1997 before a scheduled court appearance. He described his time in Thailand as living in 'paradise,' claiming he had enjoyed 27 years of life on the run. He returned to the UK just before his 80th birthday, arrested upon arrival at Heathrow Airport. The prosecution's case states that he abused his position of trust, carefully selecting vulnerable boys to target. Burrows himself acknowledges some incidents of indecent assault and sexual touching but insists he did not commit any penetrative sexual activity. He asserts that the complainants are either mistaken or lying about their accusations against him. During a search of his home in Birmingham, police discovered magazines containing explicit images of adolescents, further compounding the nature of the allegations against him. The trial, which is estimated to last up to five weeks, is being closely followed and has seen more complainants step forward following the police appeal on BBC's Crimewatch programme.