Former scout leader acquitted of indecent assault charges in Cork

A former scout leader has walked free after a jury took just under two hours to acquit him of three counts of indecently assaulting a then ten-year-old boy scout when they were both members of a scout troop in Cork City over 40 years ago.

The 63-year-old-defendant had denied all three counts of indecent assault on dates between June 1st 1979 and August 31st 1979, which the complainant alleged happened at his local Scout Hall in Cork City and at Kilcully Scout Camp outside Blackpool in Cork.

The man strongly denied the charges at Cork Circuit Criminal Court and when asked by his defence counsel, Siobhán Lankford SC, how he felt when the allegations were first put to him by gardaí, he replied: “I was absolutely horrified. I just couldn’t believe it. It came completely out of the blue.”

The man also told prosecution barrister, Dermot Sheehan BL, it was his belief that the complainant in the case had made the allegations against him because he was seeking money. “It is my opinion that there is money involved in this matter,” he told the jury of seven men and five women.

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The trial before Judge Elva Duffy also heard memos of interview with Sgt Danielle Hegarty in which the accused said he didn’t know the complainant very well and denied indecently assaulting the boy by fondling his genitals through his pants when carrying out a uniform inspection.

“It never happened. I know nothing at all about it. I don’t think there were scout meetings in June. In a uniform inspection there would certainly have been no hands on,” he told gardaí. “They [the boy scouts] were all lined up. I would not have been close to them when I carried out inspections.”

The defendant also denied allegations he had fondled the complaint’s genitals when away at Kilcully Scout Camp. “It never happened ... I have no idea (why he made the allegations). It never happened. He never specified where or when ... they are totally untrue and they never happened,” he said.

The 54-year-old complainant told the jury on the opening day of the three-day trial that he had joined his local troop of the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland in summer 1979 and he used to parade and line up in his local Scout Hall for inspection by the accused and three other scout leaders.

He said the inspection involved the scout leaders checking that the boys’ berets were on straight and that their neckerchief and lanyards for their whistles were being worn properly and that the buckles of their belts were also properly positioned on their waists.

“I was the new guy standing at the end of the line during inspection ... every time I encountered [the accused], he would fondle me with his hands on my genitals through my pants – he never slipped his hand inside my pants – every time he would do it with a smile which was quite disarming.

“There were other people about – he was not discrete about it whatsoever – it was always brief and fleeting, just a few seconds – he seemed quite happy and friendly – he was always pleasant, never aggressive – he would have said things, compliments maybe, but I don’t remember the specifics.

“He would do it in such a regular way, it just happened all the time, like this normal thing to do, it was incessant, you just became immune to it, they [the alleged assaults] just all blended into one another, he would do it every time you were close to him, he fondles you with his hand and fidgets.”

The man said he knew what was happening wasn’t right and he didn’t feel comfortable though not so uncomfortable as to make him want to leave the Scout Troop and make a complaint. He did leave at the end of that summer, although it wasn’t due to any one particularly incident.

“Every time I would see him, he would fondle me, and he would smile – he was always cheery and happy when he was doing it ... at first, I thought I was normal but after a couple of months, I developed a strong dislike of the Scouts ... I wanted it to stop but I was afraid to tell my mum.”

The man confirmed in cross-examination he was suing the defendant and the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland for compensation, but he said the criminal complaint was about getting justice while the civil actions were about compensation which he was entitled to for the injury suffered.