Stories

Page 3

• Emotional Abuse

  I briefly joined the scouts for 2 years to take part in a DOFE program and almost as soon as i joined a boy started bullying me simply because he could.The leader who was in charge of the program was fully aware of this and actively watched it happen.

  At the time i didnt want to say anything to him because i was scared of him and thought reporting jt would make it worse.

  On the Expedition i was in a group with him. I had to spend many hours a day in a boat with him and he made my life a living hell for thoes days. The leader also witnessed this and did nothing.

  To this day i havent went back to scouts or DOFE he ruined it for me and i hate him for it.
• Sexual Abuse

  I wasn’t in scouts but I was in girl guides. However we did go to camps where we would be sharing the site with others, sometimes other guides and sometimes scouts. We were on a camp with a few other groups there, I can’t remember how many but most of them were scouts. I remember one of the scout leaders chatting to our guide leader asking if anyone wanted to do flags in the morning just normal chat and I was standing with her. He asked my name and age. I told him I was 11 and he made a comment about how young I looked for my age. This wasn’t abnormal everyone said it because I looked significantly younger than all the others in our group. we went to bed and i remember waking up and needing to go to the toilet. The toilets were at the other side of the site so I got up and put my wellies on and walked over. I entered the bathroom and I had been followed in. I just remember being pushed and held down against the sinks. I don’t know how long it lasted but it probably was a lot shorter than i remember. He told me if I told me that it was my fault for walking in the dark at night on my own and I should have brought someone with me. I walked back to the tent and got into my sleeping bag and I was in so much pain and felt so ill. I don’t remember sleeping but in the morning I didn’t want to get out of the tent. My leader came to speak to me and when she got me out of my sleeping bag she thought I had started my period because of the blood on my pyjamas. I didn’t know her very well because I had just moved up to this guides from brownies and I just didn’t say anything. The scouts left the camp site before us and I just felt numb the rest of the time. I moved to a different guide group after to the leaders that ran my brownies I was close with. I didn’t want to go to camps were we were with other groups and I hated wearing the uniform.
• Sexual Abuse

  This is a hard story to tell, from when I was an Explorer between 2006 and 2008.
  I was aged between 16 and 18 at the time and the leader was in their early 30s.

  There was no Facebook or Instagram back then, MySpace was what eveyone was on – but MSN messaging was still king. You would log on each evening on the shared family computer and chat to your friends from school, or like me, Explorers. Many of us had our Explorer leader on chat too – and we didn’t think anything strange of it.

  But I, like othersin my unit was groomed by the leader.

  At the time I was sexually assaulted in 2008 I had turned 18. I felt at the time and for a long time after that it was a mistake that I had made. Due to the technicality I was ‘over 18’ I thought it was something he was allowed to do and that it wasn’t something I could report.

  How did it start? From the age of 16 I used to attend weekly kayaking pool sessions which were additional to the regular Explorer Night. We used the local pool but Scouts were the only people there. Adults and young people would share communal changing rooms, – and this leader would find satisfaction in banter and body shaming young people.

  To this day I am not sure why but our parents would often drop us off at his house so we could help load up and transport group kit from his garage. Coming from a Scouting family it was just accepted this was an OK thing to do, but several male members of our unit were being groomed. I don’t fully know the extent as we don’t even talk about it anymore.

  I was sexually assaulted once in the back of his range rover style car as after turning 18 as that’s where he told us would be sleeping as we were not allowed to share the accommodation building with the under 18s. There were 4 of us sleeping in the car and I woke up to find him with his hands down my trousers. I got out of the car at 5am and hid in the toilets until eveyone else got up for breakfast.

  I was assaulted a few years later after a night out back in our home town which ended up back at their house.

  This leader is no longer involved in Scouting, I don’t know the circumstances they left in as people don’t talk about it and it didn’t involve me, and I had moved away for University.

  This leader was insecure with their own sexuality and would prey on the sexuality of gay young people who were not out to their parents and used this to manipulate them.
• Post 2014

  I have been a leader for 30 years. I have seen attitudes change, and practices considered normal 30 years ago are nowadays, quite rightly, frowned upon.

  I reported a Leader through the Scout Safeguarding process, I specifically requested that they made sure a certain Police Officer was not part of the investigation. The day after I made the complaint, the subject called me out for making the complaint. Nothing happened. He still involved, and I am aware of other accusations made against him.

  I had an issue with a Scout with a mental health issue. We were abroad at the time. I followed the Scout Association procedure to the letter. On returning home, I found that I had to speak to one of the parents as there had been no contact from Social Services, and the subject could/ should not have gone back home without his mother being aware of the issue.

  I have since made a couple of reports, and I would say to anyone in Scouts or Guides, if you have any concerns about the safeguarding of a child at the hands of a Leader, make your complaint through the NSPCC, do not use the Scout process.

  The Scout Safeguarding system can be misused, and Leaders can and do close ranks because no one wants to think of their friend as an abuser.

  When I left Scouts, I was inundated with messages from other leaders who had been subject to bullying and intimidation. My message to anyone is that bullying and intimidation and any form of abuse have no place in society, never mind Scouts.
• Sexual Abuse

  In cubs in the mid-70s there was a regular outing by train to a seaside resort on the south coast. In those days trains had individual compartments, and our group of perhaps 6 to 8 boys was in one with our akela. We played a game where when you made a mistake you had to lay across his lap and have your bottom smacked with a slipper. At the same time he would grab and squeeze your testicles.
• Sexual Abuse

  I went from cubs to scouts and aged about 11 enrolled for my first aid badge. Me and another scout arrived at the equipment storage area where the scoutmaster asked me to remove my trousers and underwear. He then proceeded to put a bandage around the top of my leg close to my groin. I was mortified especially as the girl guides were meeting in the attached hall with no obvious lock on the door and some could have come in at anytime for equipment which, maybe, our Skip was hoping for..
• Sexual Abuse

  I remember several of us Scouts being invited into the kit storeroom by an Assistant Scout Leader (in the mid-1960s). Once we were in there he closed the door and revealed his penis and testicles, inviting us to touch them. We were all severely taken aback and frightened, so we made a rapid exit. There was no follow up. Later I learnt that this ASL had written letters to several of the individual Scouts. He had then very rapidly thought better of this move and persuaded the Scout Leader to drive him to the homes of those Scouts so he could retrieve the letters before they were opened. I don’t know what the content of the letters was. Later this ASL tried to take his own life, failed, and later went on to study at university.
• Post 2014

  I was a scout between 2010 and 2014, in 2011 I went on a scout trip to Europe, on that trip if we got in trouble they would take the money we had been given to us by our parents/ guardians, and they would dock it.

  I remember being accused of lying by this one scout leader, they deducted money from me despite no evidence i had lied. It was a combined trip between us and another scout group, the leader of the other scout group was particularly horrible. I was 11 years old at the time, from my memory we were called Bitches by a scout leader and bullying from older kids wasn’t taken seriously. When myself and two friends got left in a shop in a city we didn’t know, we got in trouble for staying at the shop and not trying to go find the group, and money was deducted from us. I remember complaining of being made to do the washing up more than the older boys and us being told off for complaining and made to wash up in the dark late in to the night. My memory is hazy but I remember older kids bullying us and nothing being done , scout leaders joining in calling us cry babies.

  There was definite favouritism to the older boys. I remember going up a mountain in the mini van with like 3 people on one chair. I remember rumours about sexist and racist language being used by leaders.

  This was an ongoing theme through out my experience of scouts, I remember being told that I couldn’t be a patrol leader cos they already had one “girl” leader. I remember cruel games to trick us and a kid being made to run around a field in the middle of the night because they were being noisy. I remember bullying and sexual harrasment from other scouts and little education or support.. I remember being told off by scout leaders for wearing too short shorts and being told that if we dressed certain way it make us sluts.
• Sexual Abuse

  I joined the scouts at 11 years old, quickly I developed a friendship with one of the group leaders. Over the years he nurtured this friendship, talking to me most evenings on social media, texting and picking me for ‘special projects’ he encouraged me to become a young leader so we were able to see each other more often. By 15 (Around 2010) we were in a full relationship, though only a handful of people knew (no adults in scouting had been informed) however leaders regularly left us both alone in the scout premises, or arrived to groups and seeing that both of us had been there for a while before their arrival – would say nothing and not question it.

  Despite my age and being a young leader, leaders would often regard how close we were yet not challenge or question his behaviour or why we were so close, we would travel together to events, leaders would leave us both to stay up late on camps despite knowing it was just the two of us. I believe that because of this negligence he was able to start a sexual relationship with me. With all sexual conduct happening on scout premises and grounds.

  At 16 I ended the relationship and quickly became uncomfortable by his presence, leaders and friends noticed my change in behaviour towards him and noticed I was visibly uncomfortable by his presence. One leader contacted me on social media and questioned why I was so uncomfortable, I decided to tell this leader about the relationship and what had happened in person. I also explained that I was concerned he was grooming another young person now. This leader said they would deal with it but didn’t tell me what they would do, months later nothing had changed, and I found out that the leader I had reported it too was also dating a 15 year old boy and his friends/family who were also scout leaders were all aware. I suspect this is why he protected him.

  Five years later, as an adult, I realised how inappropriate the relationship had been, the negligence from other leaders and decided to lodge a complaint with the Scout Association. After notifying them of the instances that had occurred and that the leader was still working as a cub leader, I was told they wouldn’t do anything unless I reported it to the Police. After reporting it to the police the scout association continued to refuse to do anything. After asking for assistance from a county scout leader, who took the issue seriously, I was told my The Scout Associations safeguarding team that the leader would be put in front of a panel of scout leaders and they would likely side with him (denying what happened) so suggested I dropped the accusations. Eventually I sent conclusive evidence (images, screenshots) of the relationship and due to pressure from the county leader I had involved, they interviewed the leader and suggested he resigned. The safeguarding officer contacted me to notify me that he and his family were incredibly upset and was I sure I wanted to continue. I insisted they continued, but instead of removing him they suggested he resigned, which he did.

  I asked for support with counselling after the process, which had taken around 6 months and been mentally challenging, and was told this was not possible and to speak to my GP.

  The entire process was re-traumatising, I wasn’t listened to and the matter was not taken seriously.

  On reflection of my time in scouting, other than this incident I was personally aware of almost 10 inappropriate relationships (over 18’s grooming and having relationships with under 16’s) and was involved in five other instances with leaders sending me and friends inappropriate images, messages e.t.c. For these reasons I believe their is a systemic issue within scouting.
• Post 2014

  There is no legal duty of care for volunteer leaders who chose to ignore the escalating bullying by other Scouts of my neurodiverse child. We followed Scout Association policies and reported the bullying. Despite bringing it to their attention and being given assurances as to safeguarding, the Scout leaders left them with the same group of boys who then simulated anal rape on him.

  The leaders’ position was that they believed the bullies who were ‘good boys’, whose parents were involved in the Scouting movement, and that my son could choose to go elsewhere whilst the bullies were allowed to remain. My son developed PTSD now exacerbated by Covid into total isolationism and a lack of trust. All because of institutional norms that perpetuate a lack of regard for the safety of young people in their care.

  We attempted to obtain justice, were misadvised by three sets of solicitors that there was a duty of care, only to lose our case because there were no legal grounds. The Scout Association pursued costs against both my son and myself, meaning they now own a good percentage of our home.