OKLAHOMA CITY — A jury trial began this week in Oklahoma City for 20-year-old Matthew Lane Durham, who is charged with sexually assaulting orphans in a Kenyan village.

An indictment in U.S. District Court charges Durham with multiple counts of aggravated sexual abuse with eight children; travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual contact; and engaging in sexual contact in foreign places.

Durham, a native of Edmond, Oklahoma, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He was arrested in July 2014. If convicted on all charges, he could face life in prison.

As the trial opened Wednesday, Durham’s attorney, Stephen Jones of Enid, Oklahoma, said Durham is innocent of all charges and that an earlier written admission of guilt by Durham was coerced. Jones said orphanage officials had detained Durham and took his passport.

“There is no demon. There are no multiple personalities. There are no crimes,” Jones said in his opening statement.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Gifford read an excerpt from Durham’s writing in his opening arguments.

“I would take her to the bathroom at night and hold her down and rape her,” Gifford said, quoting Durham in the alleged assault of a 12-year-old girl.

Durham was 19 when he was arrested during his fourth trip to Kenya. 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.

Prosecutors allege that Durham traveled from Edmond to Kenya, where he volunteered to work with children ages four to 10 living at the Nairobi-area Upendo Children’s Home. He is alleged to have committed the crimes from April to June 2014.

The home, supported by many Americans including Edmond churches and residents, was established by an Edmond couple from poverty-stricken Kenya. Through donations, the orphaned and destitute children attend school for free.

Six children that Durham allegedly abused began to testify Wednesday through an interpreter. But U.S. District Judge David Russell emptied the gallery and closed the courtroom before the first child testified.

According to kfor.com, the public was brought back into the courtroom after lunch to the hear the testimonies of sisters Josphine Wambugu and Eunice Menja, the co-founders of Upendo.

Wambugu testified to catching Durham lying in bed with an alleged victim on the night of June 12, 2014. When she questioned six girls from the room, four said Durham had “bad manners” — or sexual relations — with them, she testified.

Wambugu also testified that Durham said “he struggled with child pornography and homosexuality.”

Coburn writes for The Edmond (Ok.) Sun