OKLAHOMA CITY — Federal prosecutors questioned their final witnesses Monday, some of them children who testified through an interpreter in a closed courtroom, before resting their case against an Oklahoma man charged with sexually abusing children at an orphanage in Kenya.

Matthew Lane Durham, 20, of Edmond, faces 17 counts of sexual misconduct and life in prison if convicted.

The suspect’s family, from left, parents Kyle and Melissa Durham, and brothers Josh and Zac Durham, leave federal court Monday in Oklahoma City. The Associated Press

Durham has pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Stephen Jones, has said Durham will testify in his own defense.

The last prosecution witness, like the first who testified Wednesday, was a child aged 12 or under whom Durham is accused of molesting between April and June 2014 while he served as a volunteer at the Upendo Children’s Home in Nairobi, Kenya.

Five children – four girls and a boy – testified before the jury and court personnel only to shield them from the public.

After prosecutors rested their case, Jones asked U.S. District Judge David Russell to dismiss many of the counts against Durham, alleging that the government had failed to produce evidence that he intended to engage in illicit sexual conduct prior to his trip to Kenya. Russell denied the motion.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Gifford recalled testimony that Durham, a volunteer at the orphanage since 2012, had asked to arrive at Upendo days before other volunteers and to stay at the orphanage instead of at the off-premises housing that is customary for volunteers.

Prosecutors also presented statements Durham gave orphanage authorities after he was confronted about allegations of misconduct.

“I would take her to the bathroom at night and hold her down and rape her. This happened on several occasions,” one of the statements said.

Jones has challenged the credibility of those statements and claims Durham confessed to crimes he did not commit because he was under duress.

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