Serial paedophile, 81, who spent nearly three decades on the run in Thailand jailed for 46 years

Serial paedophile Richard Burrows has been jailed for 46 years for numerous sexual offences against young boys.

The 81-year-old former boarding school housemaster and scout leader, spent 27 years on the run in Thailand before he was arrested at Heathrow Airport last year. Before his trial, Burrows admitted 43 offences - including indecent assault of boys, making indecent images of children, possession of indecent images of children and four counts of possession of false identity documents with intent.

He denied 54 others, which jurors at Chester Crown Court convicted him of last month. Those offences include indecent assault of boys, buggery, attempted buggery and indecency with a child.

The trial heard that Burrows had obtained positions of authority and systematically abused 24 boys from the 1960s to the mid-1990s. He had worked as a housemaster at a school for troubled boys and befriended other youngsters through amateur radio clubs.

Burrows was initially charged in May 1997 but failed to attend a hearing later that year. He remained on the wanted list until police using facial recognition software matched him to a man using the name Peter Smith.

He had stolen the identity of a terminally ill friend to obtain a passport. Burrows described "living in paradise" in emails found after his eventual arrest, written after he fled to Thailand.

The judge Steven Everett told Burrows: "You are a despicable man. You have ruined countless lives.

"These serious sexual assaults were committed by you because you are a predator. "You deliberately positioned yourself among groups and communities to get closer to them, and to groom and sexually abuse young boys." The judge said he had "no doubt" he was never going to come back to the UK had he not run out of money and been diagnosed with cancer.

"I have seen no remorse in your behaviour," he added. Read more:Decades on the beach - sex offender's life in hiding One of those was his first victim, aged 14 at the time in the late 1960s, and now 71.

He told Sky News' chief North of England correspondent Greg Milam that he feels like a weight has been lifted after waiting 57 years for justice. "It does actually feel like a weight's been lifted.

You hear that expression all through life, but it's the first time ever really felt it," he said. He described Burrows as a "devious, nasty creature".

After he was sentenced, Detective Inspector Eleanor Atkinson branded him a "coward". "He knew he was guilty in 1997, but rather than face the consequences of his actions, he fled the country after fraudulently obtaining a passport using the identity of an unwell man," she said.

"He spent the last 27 years, in his own words, 'living in paradise'. It is clear that he did not spare a thought for his victims, who were trying to live their lives under the shadow of the abuse they had suffered." Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor Samantha Thompson said Burrows will "very likely never leave prison".

"Burrows is an unrepentant paedophile who used his position of trust to sexually abuse boys over three decades," she said. "His victims suffered horrendous abuse made worse by many of them not being able to tell anyone for fear that they would not be believed.

"This was borne out in some cases, where boys did speak up but were dismissed, and Burrows was able to move on.".