Boy Scouts covered up abuse for decades

WASHINGTON: The Boy Scouts of America failed to report hundreds of suspected child molesters over two decades and often left parents in the dark to save face, the Los Angeles Times reported.

After reviewing 1 600 confidential files dated 1970-1991 from the organisation, the Times found more than 500 instances in which the Scouts learnt of abuse directly from boys, parents, staff or anonymous tips, rather than after the incidents were reported to authorities. And in about 80 percent of those cases, there was no record of the Scouts reporting the abuse claims to authorities.

The Times also found that officials actively sought to hide the allegations or allowed the suspects to conceal the abuse claims in more than 100 of the cases.

Although the organisation, which counts nearly 4 million adult and youth members, has long sought to keep the “perversion files” out of public view, it could face a damning wave of lawsuits and bad publicity in the coming weeks as the records are set to be released.

The Oregon Supreme Court has ordered the public release of about 1 200 files dating from 1965 to 1985.

Scouting officials told the Times that in many cases they covered up the allegations to spare young victims embarrassment. But some of the alleged molesters then went on to abuse other children, according to Scouts documents and court records cited by the Times.

In response to the article, the organisation issued an apology to the victims and stressed that it had always cooperated with the authorities.

“We regret there have been times when despite our best efforts to protect children, scouts were abused,” said spokesman Deron Smith. “For that we are very sorry and extend our deepest sympathies to victims.” – Sapa-AFP