Former scout official quizzed over historic abuse claims

A FORMER scouting official was questioned last night in connection with a historical sex abuse allegation.

The man, who is in his 70s, was arrested early yesterday morning.

He was held at a Garda station and was still being questioned by detectives late last night.

The Irish Daily Mail understands he has denied the allegation against him and that he is expected to be released without charge.

However, a file will be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

A Garda spokesman said last night: ‘We can confirm a man in his 70s has been held and questioned in connection with a historic allegation of sexual assault.’

The allegation against him concerns an incident alleged to have happened in the 1970s.

It is not believed to be one of the cases featured in a report by child protection expert Ian Elliott of his review into sexual abuse in Irish scouting organisations.

As emerged recently, Mr Elliott found evidence of 71 alleged abusers and 108 alleged victims in incidents dating back to the 1960s.

He also found that 14 of the abusers had more than one victim and, while the majority of them have since died, some of the abusers live in Northern Ireland or abroad.

As well as being well known within the scouting fraternity, the man arrested yesterday is also a relatively well known businessman.

The Irish Daily Mail understands that as recently as last year, the arrested man was involved in scouting.

His arrest comes just days after Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone said she has been ‘flooded’ with emails from people who claim they were abused as children in the wake of the Elliott report.

As the Irish Daily Mail reported last week Scouting Ireland expects the number of victims to increase significantly.