US missionary pleads guilty to sexually abusing girls at Kenyan orphanage, feds say
A Pennsylvania man is facing jail time for the sexual abuse of four young girls at an orphanage he founded in Kenya.
Gregory Dow, 61, pleaded guilty Monday to four counts of “engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor in a foreign place,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced.
Dow is accused of assaulting the girls between 2013 and 2017 while operating Dow Family Children’s Home, an orphanage he established in Boito, Kenya, in 2008. Two were 11 years old when the abuse began, federal prosecutors said.
The other victims were 12 and 13.
“The defendant purported to be a Christian missionary who cared for these children and asked them to call him ‘Dad,’ ” prosecutors said in a statement. “But instead of being a father figure, he preyed on their youth and vulnerability.”
Federal authorities said Dow’s wife, Mary Rose Dow, was involved in the abuse, going so far as to have birth control devices implanted in the girls’ arms so her husband could continue to “perpetrate his crimes without fear of impregnating his victims.”
Dow fled Kenya and returned to Pennsylvania in 2017 after the abuse allegations surfaced, authorities said.
The Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office received a tip in 2018, prompting an investigation by federal authorities, according to LancasterOnline. Investigators traveled to Kenya and spoke with the four girls who confirmed Dow sexually abused them.
The missionary was arrested in July 2019 in East Hempfield Township, Pennsylvania, the outlet reported.
“Gregory Dow hid behind his supposed faith on the other side of the world, hoping no one in the U.S. would know or care about the children he abused,” U.S. Attorney William McSwain said in a statement. “He was wrong.”
Dow has previously admitted to sexual abuse. In 1996, he pleaded guilty to assault to commit sexual abuse in Iowa, the Associated Press reported, citing prosecutors.
He was ordered to complete two years probation and register as a sex offender for a decade, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
“Holding those accountable who sexually abuse children, no matter where their crimes occur, will continue to be a top priority of my Office and the entire Department of Justice,” McSwain said.
Dow’s sentencing is scheduled for late September.
This story was originally published June 16, 2020 at 2:31 PM.