A Pennsylvania man preyed on children under the guise of missionary work at an orphanage and asked them to call him 'dad' while h...
A Pennsylvania man preyed on children under the guise of missionary work at an orphanage and asked them to call him 'dad' while he sexually abused them, a court has heard.
Gregory Dow, 61, of Lancaster has pleaded guilty to four counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor in a foreign place between October 2013 and September 2017 while running the Dow Family Children's Home in Boito, Kenya.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced that he entered his plea Monday and he will be sentenced in a U.S. court on September 29.
He and his wife Mary Rose established the orphanage in 2008 after in 1996 he pleaded guilty to assault with intent to commit sexual abuse in Iowa.
Dow was only given two years' probation after the guilty plea and was made to register as a sex offender until 2006.
Gregory Dow established the Dow Family Children's Home in Boito, Kenya in 2008 as a missionary of Lifegate Church in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania
He moved with his wife Mary Rose (left) and six of his children. Dow engaged in illicit sexual conduct with at least four minors between October 2013 and September 2017
Then he and his wife sold their belongings and moved to the African country as a missionary from Lifegate Church in Elizabethtown.
The couple reportedly moved with Dow's six children.
Prosecutors said that when the abuse started, two girls were 11, one was 12 and one was 13.
Dow reportedly raped the children at his home. One worker claimed to see him in the shower with a girl.
Two of the girls fled the orphanage on September 11, 2017 and told locals of the physical, psychological, and sexual abuse endured. But the time authorities arrived to investigate on September 14, the orphanage had closed.
The orphanage received financial support from Lancaster County churches and nonprofits.
Dow reportedly raped the children at his home and one worker claimed to see him in the shower with a girl. Two of the girls fled the orphanage (pictured) on September 11, 2017
The girls told locals of the abuse endured but when authorities arrived three days later the Dows had fled and closed the orphanage
His wife Mary Rose was caught in a town nearby to Nairobi and was jailed for five months after in January 2018 she was found guilty on two counts of cruelty to a child
He fled to the US after Kenyan authorities issued an arrest warrant. But his wife Mary Rose was caught in a town nearby to Nairobi and was jailed for five months after in January 2018 she was found guilty on two counts of cruelty to a child.
Mary Rose aided the insertion of birth control for female child orphans.
In December 2018 Dow claimed to news outlets that he was innocent and that locals were telling lies to get him kicked out of the area.
Lifegate church pastor, Doug Lamb, initially said he thought Dow was innocent.
But Kenya Women in the US (KWITU) petitioned for his arrest and his ex-wife Janice Jenkins claimed he had sexually abused their eldest daughter decades ago.
KWITU argued he should be tried in the US as he had financial support from several Pennsylvania churches. Then in July 2019 he was taken into custody.
Gregory Dow was registered as a sex offender from 1996 to 2006 after pleading guilty to assault with intent to commit sexual abuse in Iowa
Dow 'purported to be a Christian missionary who would care for these orphans. They called him 'Dad'. But instead of being a father figure for them, he preyed on their youth and vulnerability,' prosecutors said in the court filing after his arrest.
Dow 'used force and coercion to perpetrate the most heinous of crimes, preying on vulnerable children for his own sexual gratification,' prosecutors wrote.
'Gregory Dow hid behind his supposed faith on the other side of the world, hoping no-one in the US would know or care about the children he abused. He was wrong,' US attorney William McSwain.
The FBI's Philadelphia Field Office conducted the investigation with assistance from Kenyan authorities and local law enforcement in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
LNP newspaper reported that during a teleconference hearing Monday, Dow told the judge that he acknowledged the truth of the prosecution's allegations.
Under terms of his plea agreement, he would serve 15 years and eight months in prison and then have to register as a sex offender, the newspaper said.
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