Stories

Page 4

• Post 2014

  I was bullied ruthlessly by other kids in my scout group, starting almost immediately after I moved up from cubs.

  The inciting incident was that I turned down an older boys advances. I was 11 and he was 13. At first it was just uncomfortable to be around him, but soon I was being ostracised by the entire pack. Insults and name calling soon turned physical with me being pushed into a ditch and tripped into a nettle patch on a camp.

  There was no adult supervision in my scout group. Adult leaders left the older children in charge while they chatted and drank coffee in another room. Occasionally a few explorers would join for a meet, meaning I was being ganged up on not only by the older children but some young adults too.

  One explorer was hideously cruel to me. Making fun of my weight and glasses, mimicking the way I talked and encouraging the scouts to do the same. We were in the same group, but I also had to share a space with her in gang show and on camps too. It was horrible.

  I spoke to the adult leaders about what was happening many times. Even begging my parents to get involved on my behalf. I was told I had to put up with it, as these kids had better leadership qualities than me and the request that it be ensured that an adult be in the room with the children the whole 2 hour meet was unreasonable.

  My parents were told that I was dramatic and unlikeable and the way I was being treated was inevitable because I was different and socially awkward. They were convinced by the scout leaders that the bullying issue was very small series of spats between me and a few same age girls, and that I was gaining a lot more from being in scouts than I was losing.

  When I was 13 the older boy whose advances I turned down 2 years prior was now an explorer himself. He was still attending the scout meet every week with increased responsibilities. On a blended scouts and explorers camp he joined us.

  On that trip he touched me inappropriately without my consent. He also entered my tent without my knowledge and went through my luggage pack.

  Not knowing what to do I kept it to myself, thinking that nobody knew, but I was wrong. An 18 year old explorer girl was privy to all the information I wanted to keep to myself, and rather than reporting the incident to an adult leader, she discussed it with the scouts and explorers as if it were a joke.

  Ashamed I begged my parents to not send me to scouts anymore, but I couldn’t tell them why. Thankfully I didn’t have to. 3 weeks after the camp a scout told their parents about the gossip, who reached out to the scout leaders who told my mum everything but the boys name.

  I took 4 months off from scouting after that traumatic event and decided at 14 to age into explorers at a different group. The group I moved into were lovely. A well organised and a welcoming bunch.

  It took a long time, but the heavy weight of my old scout group had been weighing on me started lifting and slowly I began to feel lighter. I became a brighter, happier person. I had that sick dread feeling in my stomach for so long I didn’t even realise I’d been carrying it arouns till it was gone.

  I left scouting entirely at 15, mostly because as much as I liked my new group, it felt like a chapter in my life that I had to close.

  Out and about I’ve seen some of the people I knew from that first scout group in my adulthood. Mostly I get treated like they don’t know who I am. Maybe as a 20 year old I just look completely unrecognisable to what I did when I was 14, I’m not sure that’s the reason why though.
• Post 2014

  When I was 15, I was a young leader at a cub group whilst also in explorers and on a district cub camping weekend I met a leader from another cub group who was in his 20s at the time. Nothing happened that weekend, but following the camp we added each other on social media and started talking and the grooming began. It started as a friendship, we became best friends very quickly and I saw him as an older brother. We bonded over our struggles with our mental health and personal losses we had experienced in life.

  Within a few months of meeting him, I would meet up with him after school and one evening he told me he had feelings for me, and being too scared to say no to him, I said I did too and we started a relationship. Before I turned 16, I had been sexually assaulted and raped by him.
  The relationship lasted until I was 17, over 2 years since I first met him and for the majority of this time he was still a cub leader, until he was suspended by the organisation for reasons I still do not know, and thankfully he hasn’t returned since.

  Our relationship was living hell, he was emotionally abusive and I was raped on multiple occasions. The suicide threats and attempts were none stop and I did everything I possibly could to keep that man alive at the cost of my own mental health, my closest friendships and my education.

  In the last few months of our relationship the abuse got so much worse – he had enrolled at my college and I was being harassed constantly. We eventually broke up a few months later but the harassment continued and I was stalked one evening, which ended in him being arrested but later released with no further action. It seemed to be enough to scare him and on the most part I have been left alone since then.

  After years of therapy, I reported all the abuse to the scout association in 2021, however a safeguarding officer told me that because he was no longer a leader, it was a police matter not theirs, and they would not look into it further. A few months later, I got back in touch with them and pushed for it to be looked into it further, which thankfully it picked up by another safeguarding officer who reported it to the police for me. Unfortunately the police case dragged on for 18 months, he was voluntarily interviewed once (and denying it all), but the CPS decided not to charge him based on the technicality that he wasn’t MY scout leader, despite the fact that none of the abuse would have happened if it wasn’t for scouting.

  I now live with PTSD and anxiety from the trauma and my emotions towards him and the scout association are those filled with anger and upset. Although never directly confirmed, conversations with multiple members of the safeguarding team and the police have given me the impression they were aware of the abuse or a relationship between us to some degree, which looking back is no surprise given I met and went on holiday with his family, including a relative that is a leader at the same group and they saw me at an event in my explorer uniform!

  Things need to change within the organisation. I once loved scouting and it was such a huge part of my life, but they are putting their reputation before the safety of young people and I cannot understand how this is ever acceptable.
• Sexual Abuse

  As part of a Gangshow (it’s a variety show run and performed by Scouts) – I was in the cast under the age of 14.

  I was sexually assaulted multiple times by a male member of the cast, including when I was on stage singing as part of a bigger group of people.

  I told people about this behaviour (older friends, but in earshot of adults), and was told that ‘oh that’s just what he is like’.

  This behaviour attempted to continue in future years, including when I moved to backstage Crew at the age of 14, in part to move away from this boy. Friends of a similar age to me would make up jobs this boy had been asked to do to keep him away from me.

  Years later, he’s part of the emergency services (I believe an ambulance driver), and provides first aid during the show.
• Sexual Abuse

  I was a cub scout in the mid sixties and not abused but was very wary of the cub leader. A few years later my father told me that he had seen in a local newspaper that the cub leader had been arrested for sexually assaulting various boys in the cub group.
• Sexual Abuse

  1973-1976 Assistant scout leader took advantage of me being physically abused by my father, took it upon himself to make it look like he was saving me by having an an inappropriate relationship with a minor. And I know he was at it with at least 2 others, his seedy workmates were in on it, and his son would turn a blind eye.
  I did try and report it to the police but I was made out to be a troublemaker
• Sexual Abuse

  I was on summer camp away from home. I guess I was maybe 12. I fell climbing a slope in the woods and cut my knee. I was taken to hospital to get it stitched. The Scout Leader suggested that I should sleep in his tent so he could keep an eye on me. During the night he masturbated me. I didn’t really know what was happening at the time and have only disclosed the incident anonymously when participating in CPD relating to sexual abuse.
• Post 2014

  My ex-husband started as a scout leader during our divorce proceedings after his solicitor told him it would make him look more agreeable/sympathetic. He became leader of our daughters scout group and started using it as a tool of emotional abuse. She stopped wanting to go to scouts and he seemed to take this as a personal rejection and started terrorising her. He sent text after vile text about what a terrible daughter she was and texts and voice messages to me screaming and berating me for not “being more supportive”. Police got involved, and I contacted scouts safeguarding who made a LADO referral after looking at the evidence. I feel scouts safeguarding mostly handled the matter well, but it is concerning how my ex saw scout leadership as an easy, low barrier path to being a pillar of the community and a cloak of plausible deniability. Scouts has a recruiting shortage, and they are too quick to recruit people who a simple safeguarding check would show were unsuitable.
• Post 2014

  My child’s abuse took place from aged 8-11 ( 2012-2015 )and involved grooming and full on sexual abuse/rape and many other horrendous experiences including being held under water .

  She has been in hospital for 3 years due to trauma and has a diagnosis of Complex Ptsd . There are no words to begin describing the catastrophic effect on every aspect of her life.

  We were advised by police to focus on our child – rightly so- and to let them do their job. As far as we are aware the person/s continued to work with the Scouts ‘under supervision.’

  What is known about the scale of abuse is not even the tip of the iceberg-so many will have too poor mental health, be suicidal ( maybe having even completed suicide) or substance abuse to even be in a position to do anything at all, even reading about this or talking to someone . For so many it will cause emotional – and physical – suffering beyond comprehension.

  Abuse in Scouts seems systemic and in many cases accepted.

  So many phenomenally brave people on here, speaking their truth at last.
• Sexual Abuse

  I was abused at 13. I never told anyone. At 17 as an apprentice, my abuser was one of the trainers in the company training centre. I told the managers. I was transferred to another location.

  At 63, I read his name in the local paper. Others, who had been abused were helping the police investigate him. I joined them. He got 6 years. An old man with God knows how many kids, who joined the scouts for fun, were abused by the bastard.
• Post 2014

  I joined as an assistant leader recently. The scout leader was of an older generation and didn’t hold any stock in supporting children with additional needs, referring to them as naughty and talked about how she wished she could get them out of the pack. She would organise activity sessions for the pack but didn’t book enough spaces for all the kids and didn’t follow requirements for risk assessments. She would have meetings in her back garden without other leaders, just her and her husband.

  All this was known about by senior leaders in the group and district and nothing was done to stop her. It was seen as a quirk and accepted as we did not have enough leaders. Safeguarding was less important that bums on seats. Can’t turn down a volunteer! No matter how awful they are, so long as they pass the DBS check…