EDMOND, Okla. — An Oklahoma man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for sexually assaulting children in Kenya while doing volunteer missionary work in 2014.  

Matthew Lane Durham, now 21, was 19 when he travelled to Kenya between April 30, 2014, and June 17, 2014, where he volunteered to work with children living at the Nairobi-area Upendo Children’s Home. 

Durham was sentenced by United States District Judge David Russell to serve 480 months in federal prison for engaging in illicit sexual conduct with multiple children, said Mark A. Yancey, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.

“Mr. Durham took advantage of his position as a ministry volunteer to sexually assault multiple children in Kenya,” Yancey said. “The significant sentence imposed today will remove the threat of any other children being exploited by him. However, the innocence of the child victims cannot be restored and their lives will never be the same. It is our hope and prayer that his conviction and lengthy sentence will someday bring them some comfort and peace.”

Federal law makes it a crime for any U.S. citizen to travel in foreign commerce and engage in any illicit sexual conduct with another person under the age of 18.

Durham was initially convicted of seven counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places on on June 19, 2015, but was acquitted of three of the charges in January after a judge said the prosecution “failed to establish that Defendant engaged in a sexual act with the victim alleged in those counts.” 

After serving his prison term, Durham will spend the rest of his life on supervised release and must register as a sex offender for life. He was also ordered to pay $15,863 in restitution, according to the court, Yancey said.

Coburn writes for The Edmond, Oklahoma Sun.