Scouting sex abuse cases

From Wikipedia

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.

	Table of Contents 1 Details by country   1.1 Australia   1.2 Canada     1.2.1 Past Issues     1.2.2 Modernized Screening     1.2.3 Individual Cases   1.3 England   1.4 Ireland   1.5 New Zealand   1.6 Scotland   1.7 United States     1.7.1 1991 Washington Times investigation     1.7.2 Legal actions     1.7.3 Oregon case     1.7.4 Response by the BSA 2 See also 3 References 4 Additional reading 5 External links

Details by country

Australia

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]

Canada

Past Issues

Scouts Canada has had issues with volunteers sexually abusing youth in its care. Over the organization's history of more than 100 years there have been several differing approaches to handling abuse cases, not all of them in a positive manner.

It was reported in a CBC documentary 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^[4]. According to one lawyer who has filed several cases against Scouts Canada in the past, "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"^[5].

Two months following the documentary, Scouts Canada's Chief Commissioner apologized on YouTube to "all former Scouts who suffered harm at the hands of those who abused the trust and responsibility they had gained as volunteer Leaders in our movement"^[6].

Scouts Canada stated in the video that to their knowledge, they had always reported abuse to police, and had asked independent public accounting firm KPMG to audit 350 of their files to ensure "complete confidence". They also stated that they asked Peter Dudding, CEO of the Child Welfare League of Canada, to review their youth protection policies and make recommendations.^[7]

Scouts Canada, upon review of the files by KPMG, has stated that it has not always reported to police its leaders who sexually molested children in Scouting^[8]. In some cases, abusers had been "removed discreetly"^[9]

Modernized Screening

Scouts Canada has modernized its screening practices for adult members. Applicants must complete a Police Record Check with Vulnerable Sector Check (which would turn up pardoned sex offenses). As well, local volunteers interview applicants and check the multiple references they must provide. Scouts Canada volunteers are prohibited from being with a youth member alone; two fully screened volunteers are required to be present at all times. In the event that volunteers are suspected of misconduct, policy requires that they are immediately suspended and the relevant authorities are notified with all information shared.^[10]

Scouts Canada provides with some of its handbooks, and online, a booklet called How to Protect Your Children from Child Abuse: A Parent's Guide.^[11] In addition, it is a badge requirement in the Scout program for parents and youth to review a portion of How to Protect Your Children from Child Abuse: A Parent's Guide ^[12]

Individual Cases

Richard Turley is a Canadian who had abused children in California. In 1979, the Boy Scouts of American told Turley to return to Canada, not warning Scouts Canada of Turley’s criminal behavior. In 1996, Turley was convicted of an assault four boys, three of which were scouts, in Victoria, British Columbia. He was sentenced to seven years in prison. A group committee chair had complained about Turley's behaviour and he was told to leave his troop, but he then joined a different troop.^[13]

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.^[14]

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 when he was a minor. The charges are under the now-defunct Juvenile Delinquents Act.^[15][16]

England

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." ^[17][18]

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.^[19] Burland had been involved in the Scout movement since the 1990s.^[20]

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.^[21]

Ireland

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.” ^[22]

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.^[23]

New Zealand

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.^[24]

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.^[25]

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.^[26]

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.^[27]

Scotland

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.”^[28]

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" ^[29]

United States

There were 2,000 US cases of abuse within the Boy Scouts of America prior to 1994, and one abuse incident was as recent as 2006.^[30][31] The high risk of volunteer organizations, such as the Boy Scouts of America, has been recognized.^[32]As a result, the Boy Scouts of America, the largest US youth organization with 4 million members, created a sex abuse education and prevention program in the 1980's entitled the Youth Protection program to help address the problem.

Past US abuse cases include:

• Joe Gibson, a former Scoutmaster in the St. Petersburg, Florida area, was convicted in June 1982 for molesting scouts on camping trips.^[33]
• Martin Turner, a 64-year old former Boy Scout leader in Texas, pleaded guilty in 2008 to two counts of indecency with a child by contact and one count of attempted indecency with a child by contact. He had abused two children in cases going back up to 40 years.^[34]
• David McDonald Rankin, a former Scoutmaster in College Park, Maryland, was convicted for sexually abusing teenage Scouts between 1984 and 1987. He forced Scouts to have sex with him, once threatening a youth with a knife.^[35]
• Gary Lee Gephart, a former Cub Scout leader in Oceanside, California, was convicted in 1996 for molesting three boys, ages 7 to 12.^[36]
• Howard W. Curtis, a 58-year old Haverhill, Massachusetts librarian and former Scout leader, pled guilty in May 2008 to two counts of raping a boy in his troop more than two decades ago. The 13-year-old victim was forced to engage in various sexual activities and was videotaped. During the trial, two other Scouts testified that Curtis also had abused them, but the statute of limitations had prohibited prosecution of their cases.^[37]
• James Hiatt, a former Boy Scout leader in Texas, was convicted in May 2008 of nine of 10 counts related to his fondling and sexual contact with a 12-year-old Scout. The abuse took place about 2003 to 2005.^[38][39]
• Brad Stowell confessed to molested 24 boys while working at Camp Little Lemhi in Blackfoot, Idaho, from 1989 until his arrest in 1997. Authorities working at the camp were warned numerious times during his employment. In 1988, at age 16, Stowell had previously admitted to police that he molested a 6-year old, which Scout officials were also aware of.^[40]
• Gary Wade Brown, a former Boy Scout Leader in Orem, Utah, who in 2009 pled guilty to four counts of sexual abuse of a child and sexual exploitation of a minor, second-degree felonies, and one count of lewdness involving a child, a Class A misdemeanor. Seven additional charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement. The abuse involved a 12-year old boy and took place between 2005 and 2006.^[31]
• Charles Donald Corley, a former Boy Scout volunteer in Birmingham, Alabama was convicted on two counts of first degree sodomy and three counts of sexual abuse against three young men in 1995. ^{[41] [42]}
• Richard Turley, a former volunteer in California, was convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting an 11-year-old Canadian scout. After 18 months he was released from a mental institution and went right back to work, beginning his volunteer work at a California scout camp. In 1979, he assaulted three of those scouts. Upon learning this, Boy Scouts of American simply told Turley to return to Canada, not warning Scouts Canada of Turley’s criminal behavior. In 1996, Turley went on to assault four boys, three of which were scouts, in Victoria, British Columbia. He was sentenced to seven years in prison. ^[43]
• James Molyneaux, a former Boy Scout Leader and School Teacher in Portville, New York, Was convicted on two counts of Sodomy against a minor. Molyneaux is currently incarcerated with a sentence of 50 years. The state has denied his appeal ^[44]

1991 Washington Times investigation

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; court records from more than 20 states; and more than 1,000 newspaper articles; 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.”^[32]

The series drew on three sources:

• Historical “confidential files” (formerly known as the “Ineligible Volunteer Files”) within Scout records, with details on 231 Scout leaders banned from Scouting for sexual misconduct from 1975 through 1984.
• 50 lawsuits against the Scouts by families of molested boys from around the US.
• A list from the BSA of more than 350 men banned for sexual misconduct from 1971 to 1986.

The newspaper discovered that 1,151 Scouts reported being abused by their leaders over a 19 year period mostly prior to the implementation of the Youth Protection Plan: they published a detailed list of 416 cases from 1971-1990 where a US Scout leader 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.

Records showed that abuse incidents were most likely to occur during campouts or while boys are sleeping over at the abuser’s home. According to Kenneth Lannings, the FBI Agent who helped develop the BSA's Youth Protection Plan, "A skilled pedophile who can get children into a situation where they must change clothing or stay with him overnight will almost always succeed in seducing them".^[45] Some of the traditions, situations and ploys that abusers had turned into conduits for sex were:^[32]

• Campouts
• Sexually related games
• Misuse of authority and loyalty
• Initiation rites
• Trips alone
• Sleepovers

To prevent abuse, all of the above activities are now banned or restricted by the BSA's Youth Protection program.

The series, written shortly after the inception of BSA's Youth Protection program, concluded that "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." ^[32]

Legal actions

A number of law suits have resulted. A study of 50 lawsuits against the Boy Scouts of America showed that from 1986 to 1991 BSA and local councils agreed to pay more than $15 million in damages. According to federal tax returns, BSA payments to one law firm in Miami working on abuse cases were more than one-half million dollars; the BSA insurance reserve, from which the damages are paid, stood at $61.9 million.^[32]

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 damage awards confidential is commonly required by insurers.

In August 2007, the Washington state Supreme Court ordered BSA to hand over documents concerning sexual abuse by Scout leaders. These documents showed that the organization removes about 180 of its leaders each year, although most of these removals have to do with other issues besides child abuse. ^[46]

Oregon case

Timur Dykes is a former Oregon Boy Scout leader who admitted to abusing a 12 year old boy in the 1980's prior to the implementation of the Youth Protection Plan ^[47] In a 2010, plaintiff Kerry Lewis, represented by trial lawyer Kelly Clark of Portland, won the jury trial and the largest punitive damages to date ($18.5m) awarded for sexual molestation in the Boy Scouts.^[48] Some observers said the case "could have a snowball effect in much the same way high-profile molestation suits against the Roman Catholic Church had".^[49] 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."^[49]

The trial provided a rare opportunity for an American jury to view confidential files held by BSA, although BSA had fought to keep the files secret. They showed BSA knowledge of abuse dated back to the 1920s.^[49] Reports said that in the US, the Scouts settled about 60 similar historic cases out of court over recent years.^[48]

Response by the BSA

Scouting was among the first national youth organizations to address the issue of sexual abuse 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 who might try to use the Scout program to reach victims. Additionally, since 2010, all adults in BSA are now required to complete the Youth Protection Plan training every two years and to undergo a criminal background check before being accepted as a member of the BSA. The Boy Scouts of America Youth Protection Plan was cited as a resource that other youth organizations might use in the Center For Disease Control' s publication "Preventing Child Sexual Abuse Within Youth-serving Organizations: Getting Started on Policies and Procedures" ^[50]

See also

• Abuse
• Child abuse
• Child sexual abuse
• Jehovah's Witnesses and child sex abuse
• Peter Zuckerman
• Roman Catholic sex abuse cases
• Sexual abuse
• Sexual misconduct
• Sexual harassment and abuse by teachers

References

Additional reading

• Patrick Boyle, Scout's Honor: Sexual Abuse in America's Most Trusted Institution, 1995. ISBN 0-7615-0024-3 Patrick Boyle Home page for book, other activities.
• Washington Times, “Scout’s Honor, by Patrick Boyle, 5-part series on Scout abuse, May 1991: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

External links

• 1994 Article on CBS News and other reporting of sex abuse within scouting, in the American Journalism Review, March 1994 [1]

v t Abuse Types Anti-social behaviour Bullying Child abuse (neglect, sexual) Domestic abuse Elder abuse Harassment Humiliation Incivility Institutional abuse Intimidation Neglect Personal abuse Professional abuse Psychological abuse Physical abuse Sexual abuse Stalking Structural abuse Verbal abuse more... Related topics Complex post-traumatic stress disorder Dehumanization Denial Destabilisation Exaggeration Grooming (adult, child) Lying Manipulation Minimisation Personality disorders Psychological projection Psychological trauma Psychopathy Rationalization Victim blaming Victim playing Victimisation