A former Boy Scout in the Buffalo area decided to go public with his story of sexual abuse he suffered when he was a boy decades ago after reading a story about other victims in a local newspaper. According to The Buffalo News, the paper’s own reports on victims of sexual abuse among the Boy […]
A former Boy Scout in the Buffalo area decided to go public with his story of sexual abuse he suffered when he was a boy decades ago after reading a story about other victims in a local newspaper.
According to The Buffalo News, the paper’s own reports on victims of sexual abuse among the Boy Scouts of America organization, including victims and abusers in the Buffalo area prompted him to finally come forward with his story. Thousands of pages of confidential documents were recently unsealed by order of a lawsuit against Boy Scouts of America. These documents revealed details of alleged abuse by Scoutmasters and other leaders within the organization.
The documents also included notice of organization members who were to be banned from any future activity because they had been accused of sexual abuse against the boys in the Scout packs. The Scouts, it was finally determined with the release of the documents, had been holding data on hundreds of accused pedophiles. It was later determined that the system established to keep these accused sexual predators out of the Scouts broke down and many of those accused were able to freely move among packs in different cities and states without proper checks on their backgrounds.
The Buffalo News published one letter that was included among the previously confidential documents that details the abuse perpetrated by on Scout leader in South Buffalo, notably during one group camping trip they took to Canada in 1967. Letters from parents detailed the abusive acts acted out by that one Scout leader.
The victim of the abuse back then, who has come out with his story now, says he was one of the abused boys on that trip. Although he claims to have grown since those events 45 years ago – marrying and raising a family chief among those accomplishments – he said he still felt the need to come forward.
He told The Buffalo News that he doubts his parents are among those who wrote the letters. All names in the documents have been redacted, including the name of the Scout leader who was accused of committing the abuse. He was never charged with any criminal activity in connection with the accusations against him. That leader has since died.
