Scouting sex abuse cases are situations where youth involved in Scouting programs have been sexually abused by someone who is also involved in the scouting program (an adult scout leader, or more rarely, a fellow scout). In some instances, formal charges have been laid, resulting in specific legal cases.
It is felt by some that the incidence of sexual abuse is exaggerated, however, in any organization as large as the Boy Scouts, there is a chance for abuse to occur. Children of parents who have been told about what to look out for and have an open relationship with their parents about sexual matters are much less likely to become victims of abuse.
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In 2004, a 48-year-old, former Scout Association of Australia leader in South Australia, Gregory John Kench, was charged with having sex with a 13-year-old boy two times. Kench was sentenced to 10 years in jail. This was his second conviction in five years for sexual abuse against Scouts. The offences occurred in 1991, 1992 and 1993.[1][2]
In September 2009, a 61-year-old man and former Scout leader in South Australia, was convicted of sexually assaulting an 11-year old boy. The abuse took place over four years in the 1980s. The man was not named to save his own teenage son from embarrassment.[3]
In 1997, John Adams, a former Scouts Canada leader, was sentenced to 16 months in jail for sexually assaulting a young Ottawa, Ontario scout. The abuse occurred from 1979 to 1985, from the time the youth was 9 to 15 years old, and took place in the offender’s home and Scouts Canada properties.[4]
In 2001, Brian Durham, a former Kitchener, Ontario Scout leader, pleaded guilty to 27 counts of assault, sexual touching and counseling to commit sexual acts. Many more charges were dropped in exchange for his guilty plea. The offenses were committed against 20 children from January 1991 to March 2000. Separately, the court was handling six additional charges against Durham based on offenses he committed in 1973 and 1974, that fell under a now defunct act.[5] [6]
In 2011 CBC News reported that Scouts Canada had signed out-of-court confidentiality agreements with more than a dozen child sex-abuse victims. These agreements reportedly forbade the youths from revealing the amounts paid or even the fact that there was a settlement and, in one case, from making any public statement regarding the abuse. CBC researchers found that 24 lawsuits had been filed against Scouts Canada since 1995, all concerning incidents between 1960 and the 1990s, with 13 victims signing confidentiality agreements.[7] Out of court settlements are a common practice due to lower costs to all parties involved and are not an admission of fault or blame upon either party. [8]. Furthermore, according to a lawyer who has filed several cases against Scouts Canada in the past that "she could not recall one occasion during the process of resolving a lawsuit when Scouts Canada sought to prevent a plaintiff from talking about the abuse he suffered." [9]
Scouts Canada has modernized extensive screening practices in place including a police records check with vulnerable sector check (no pardoned sex offenses), multiple references checked before a volunteer is able to have contact with youth. In addition, Scouts Canada volunteers are prohibited from being with a youth member alone, two fully screened volunteers are required to be present at all times.[10] In the event that a volunteer is suspected of any wrongdoing, they are immediately suspended and the relevant authorities are notified with all information shared. [11]
Furthermore, Scouts Canada provides resources within it's programs to educate youth members about the possibility of abuse from any source and requires youth members to review a booklet on the subject as part of several program badges. [12]
A 37-year old Norwich, England man who had been a former Scout leader pleaded guilty in 2009 to five charges of having sex with a child. The sexual activity started about 2004, when the child was 13 years old, and continued for three years. The offender, Julien Pike, was sentenced to four years in jail. In reaction to the case, an official of The Scout Association said, "The association is aware that Julien Pike has pleaded guilty to the charges laid before him. Pike was suspended from any form of contact with the movement as soon as we were aware of the arrest. The Scout Association carries out stringent vetting of all adults who work with young people." [13][14]
In April 2011, David Burland, 53, of the 1st Burnham-on-Sea Scout Group in Somerset, was bailed to appear before Taunton Deane Magistrates' Court after being charged with 12 indecent assaults, 13 counts of sexual assault, four counts of gross indecency and six of inciting a boy to engage in sexual activity. These charges relate to the alleged abuse of boys under the age of 16. Burland also faces a charge of sexual assault and indecent exposure relating to a girl under 16.[15] Burland had been involved in the Scout movement since the 1990s.[16]
On 25 April 2011, 44-year old Steven Etherington, from Pocklington, East Riding of Yorkshire, was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault. He bound the hands and feet of one boy and whipped him with a wet tea towel for not wearing a high-vis vest while cycling. Another boy was staked to the ground and tied to tent pegs in a star shape to teach him not to be ticklish. Etherington was The Scout Associations' child protection officer, in charge of training scout leaders across the Yorkshire district.[17]
In 2003, John O’Leary, a 42-year old man and former Scout leader was sentenced to three years in prison. The Cork City resident and father of two was charged with having performed oral sex on an 11-year old Boy Scout more than 20 years earlier at Scout camps. The victim, who was not named, "...said he had gone through hell since he was sexually assaulted, suffering depression and having relationship problems. He said the day in court was a long time coming, and added that because of the abuse, he had been permanently stained for life.” [18]
In 2008, Wilson Reid, a 49-year-old Scout leader in Portadown, Northern Ireland, was arrested and charged with count of rape, three counts of indecent assault against a male child and one count of supplying intoxicating substances to a person under 18. These incidents took place in 1997 and 1998.[19]
A number of sex abuse cases have occurred in the scouting movement in New Zealand.
In 1996 Donald John MacFarlane was convicted and fined $15,000 for indecently assaulting two boys. He was a scout leader for one of the boys. The abuse happened in Southland between January 1972 and December 1974.[20]
In 1999 David John White, a scout leader in the Porirua suburb of Whitby, pleaded guilty to eight charges of indecently assaulting scouts at his home between 1984 and 1998. Two other scout leaders, Thomas Donahue and Neville Palmer from Whitby, were also prosecuted for indecent assault.[21]
Two Auckland scout leaders, Andrew John Pybus and Nigel Richard Fenemor, were jailed in 2005 for seven years for sexually assaulting two boys under the age of 16.[22]
In 2006 Ken Matheson was found guilty of two cases of sexual assault of a scout between November 1989 and November 1993. Seven allegations were initially made against him.[23]
In 2006, Alan Grant, a 42-year old man who had held Scouting leadership positions in Scotland for more than 20 years, admitted to abusing two 15-year old boys in his home in 2006. To entice the boys to visit his home, Grant had set up a “fake camp,” complete with fake parent authorization forms, and obtained the parents’ permission for the boys to attend. Instead, the boys were taken to his home and given alcohol before the abuse took place. He was sentenced to nine months in jail. In response, the Scottish Scouting Association representative said the organization’s background checks were as “robust’ as they could be.”[24]
Earlier in 2006, Paul Firth, a former Scottish Scout Association leader, was jailed for a "indecency involving boys as young as eight between 1974 to 1996" [25]
There have been more than 2,000 US cases of abuse within the Boy Scouts of America prior to 1994 by Scout leaders, yet abuse is still occurring as evidenced by one abuse case as recently as 2005 to 2006.[26][27] In the 1980s, the Boy Scouts of America, the largest US youth organization with 4 million members, created a sex abuse education and prevention program entitled the Youth Protection program to help address the problem. The high risk of volunteer organizations, such as the Boy Scouts of America has been widely recognized.[28]
US abuse cases include:
In May 1991 the Washington Times published a major five-part investigation entitled “Scouts Honor” on sex abuse in the BSA. Staff from the newspaper had worked for two years preparing the series, reviewing internal and personnel records from the Boy Scouts; tens of thousands of pages of court records from more than 20 states; and more than 1,000 newspaper articles about abused Scouts; as well as interviewing more than 200 people, including molesters, families of victims, Scout leaders, sex abuse experts and lawyers. The newspaper restricted itself to reported cases of male Scout leaders abusing boy scouts prior to the introduction of its Youth Protection program. In summation they wrote “The Boy Scouts are a magnet for men who want to have sexual relations with children...Pedophiles join the Scouts for a simple reason: it’s where the boys are.”[28]
The series of articles drew on three historical sources:
The newspaper discovered that at least 1,151 Scouts reported being abused by their leaders over a 19 year period: they published a detailed list of 416 cases from 1971-1990 where a US Scout leader who was arrested or banned from Scouting for sexual abuse of Scouts, adding that experts said the real number of abusers and victims was probably several times higher. The newspaper articles later formed the basis for a book by the main journalist involved, Patrick Boyle: Scout's Honor: Sexual Abuse in America's Most Trusted Institution.
The article series, written shortly after the inception of BSA's Youth Protection program, said "After decades of shying away from the problem, the Scouts have created what many child abuse experts call one of the best sex abuse education programs in the country. The program teaches boys, leaders and parents about resisting, recognizing and reporting abuse." [28]
A number of families of abused boys have brought law suits against the Boy Scouts of America. For example in the five years from 1986 to 1991 the BSA and their local councils paid or agreed to pay more than $15 million in damages to settle lawsuits over boys who were sexually abused by Scout leaders, a study of 50 lawsuits against the Scouts showed. According to the Scouts federal tax returns, payments to just one law firm in Miami working on abuse cases for the BSA totaled more than one-half million dollars; the BSA insurance reserve, from which the damages are paid, stood at $61.9 million.[28]
The actual payment total, said the Washington Times in 1991, is probably far higher because the Scouts sometimes agree to pay damages only if the payments are kept secret. Keeping any type of damage award confidential is very commonly required by insurers.
In August 2007, the Washington state Supreme Court ordered the BSA to hand over documents concerning sexual abuse by Scout leaders. These documents show that the organization has removed about 180 of its leaders each year (about one every other day), although many of these removals have to do with other issues besides child abuse. [41]
In 2010, a report said that in the US, the Scouts were reported to have settled about 60 similar cases out of court over recent years.[31]
Records showed that abuse incidents were most likely to occur during campouts or while boys are sleeping over at the abuser’s home. Some of the traditions, situations and ploys that abusers had turned into conduits for sex are:[28]
To prevent abuse, all of the above activities are banned or restricted by the BSA's Youth Protection program
Scouting was among the first national youth organizations to address the issue of sexual abuse of its members and in the 1980s developed its Youth Protection program. The goal of the YPP is to educate youth, leaders and parents about the problem as a whole, and to introduce barriers to pedophiles using the Scout program to reach victims. Despite these efforts, sex abuse cases still occur within the Boy Scouts.
2010 saw a court case in Oregon which some observers said "could have a snowball effect in much the same way high-profile molestation suits against the Roman Catholic Church had".[43] Patrick Boyle, author of "Scout's Honor: Sexual Abuse in America's Most Trusted Institution" was quoted as commenting "Until this case, the Boy Scouts of America had managed to keep these cases largely underwater nationally. All of a sudden, it's gotten blown out of the water and the public knows that the Scouts have had this problem, too -- just like the Catholic Church."[43]
After four weeks of trial Multnomah County jurors found the Texas-based Boy Scouts of America negligent for the sexual abuse of an 11-year-old Southeast Portland boy by an assistant Scoutmaster and convicted pedophile. The jury awarded the boy, by then 38, $1.4 million.
The trial provided a rare opportunity for an American jury to view confidential files held by the Scouts, although Scouts had fought to keep the files secret. They showed BSA knowledge of Scout abuse dated back to the 1920s.[43]
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