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Prosecutor: Oklahoma man detailed assaults on Kenya children

FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 4, 2014 file photo, Stephen Jones, attorney for Matthew Lane Durham, talks with the media outside the Federal Courthouse in Oklahoma City, following a detention hearing for Durham. A Jury of eight men and four women, plus three alternate jurors, were seated after U.S. District Judge David Russell, prosecutors and defense attorneys asked about 70 prospective jury members questions, including whether they have been victims of sexual abuse. Matthew Lane Durham, 20, of Edmond, was a volunteer at the Upendo Children’s Home in Nairobi, Kenya, and faces 17 counts of sexual misconduct including aggravated sexual abuse and engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 4, 2014 file photo, Stephen Jones, attorney for Matthew Lane Durham, talks with the media outside the Federal Courthouse in Oklahoma City, following a detention hearing for Durham. A Jury of eight men and four women, plus three alternate jurors, were seated after U.S. District Judge David Russell, prosecutors and defense attorneys asked about 70 prospective jury members questions, including whether they have been victims of sexual abuse. Matthew Lane Durham, 20, of Edmond, was a volunteer at the Upendo Children’s Home in Nairobi, Kenya, and faces 17 counts of sexual misconduct including aggravated sexual abuse and engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File) FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 4, 2014 file photo, Stephen Jones, attorney for Matthew Lane Durham, talks with the media outside the Federal Courthouse in Oklahoma City, following a detention hearing for Durham. A Jury of eight men and four women, plus three alternate jurors, were seated after U.S. District Judge David Russell, prosecutors and defense attorneys asked about 70 prospective jury members questions, including whether they have been victims of sexual abuse. Matthew Lane Durham, 20, of Edmond, was a volunteer at the Upendo Children’s Home in Nairobi, Kenya, and faces 17 counts of sexual misconduct including aggravated sexual abuse and engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)

By Associated Press 1 min read

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – A federal prosecutor says a 20-year-old Oklahoma man provided detailed handwritten notes about sexually assaulting children at a Kenya orphanage.

Matthew Lane Durham has pleaded not guilty to 17 charges, including aggravated sexual abuse and engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places.

In opening statements at Durham’s trial Wednesday in Oklahoma City, deputy prosecutor Don Gifford read from notes that Durham allegedly wrote detailing how he held down victims in a bathroom at the Upendo Children’s Home in Nairobi. Durham volunteered at the orphanage.

Defense lawyer Stephen Jones told jurors that no one saw Durham abuse the children, and that any purported admission was made under duress because officials had taken Durham’s passport and held him in isolation. Jones says Durham feared for his life after being detained.