A CHURCH missionary who was awarded an MBE for his charity work with disadvantaged orphans abroad told police that victims he is alleged to have molested while living in Richmond had been “put up” to it.

The Reverend Craig Burrows claimed his ex-wife was behind the allegations he faces and said there was a “financial motive” as the couple were in dispute over their home in the Philippines which he had planned to sell.

Mr Burrows, a former Richmond School pupil who was awarded an MBE in 2005 for his charity work in the Philippines, is on trial at Teesside Crown Court where he has denied six counts of indecent assault on a female and three charges of gross indecency with a child.

The prosecution alleges that while living in Richmond, North Yorkshire, in the mid 1980s Mr Burrows sexually assaulted two girls.

One of the complainants said the defendant had put his hand on her vagina and invited her to get into bath with him while he was naked.

But Mr Burrows, who at the time said he was employed as a security guard at Catterick Garrison, denied he had been present at the time of the alleged incident and had been out working shifts.

The 50-year-old, who now lives in Canterbury Road, Sudbury, Essex, spent more than 25 years working in the Philippines after becoming a missionary on behalf of the Assemblies of God organisation, a Pentecostal movement which consists of more than 500 churches.

When he was interviewed by police Mr Burrows claimed his wife, from whom he is now separated, was behind the allegations and there was a “financial motive”.

He told detectives: “There is no way these allegations are honest or truthful. These things did not happen.

“These girls were put up to it.”

He also claimed someone had been paid to make an attempt on his life after he himself began investigating allegations of sexual abuse in the Philippines.

He denied staying in dormitories with children he met there.

Mr Burrows said: “I have been destroyed by [these] allegations. I just want this to be over.”

Giving evidence in his defence, he told the jury that he had established five charities in the Philippines and done a lot of work as a result of natural disasters in the country.

Mr Burrows said he had obtained funding from the Asian Students Christian Trust to set up a school in the Philippines for so-called “rubbish tip” children.

He had also been funded by the Zetland Christian Centre, now the Influence Church, in Reeth Road, Richmond.

The trial continues.