Scouting Ireland faces more than 50 legal cases over past sexual abuse

Scouting Ireland is facing more than 50 legal cases from alleged victims and survivors of past child sexual abuse in the youth organisation’s former legacy bodies.

The youth organisation has faced a growing number of civil cases seeking compensation since revelations four years ago that hundreds of children were sexually abused by scout leaders, mostly between the 1960s and 1990s.

In total, 52 people are currently taking legal cases against the voluntary organisation over alleged historical child sex abuse, with that number expected to continue to increase. The majority of the cases have been lodged in the High Court in the last three years, court records show.

The abuse primarily took place in predecessor bodies, the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland and Scout Association of Ireland, which merged to form Scouting Ireland in 2004.

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Following reporting in The Irish Times, more than 350 people came forward in late 2018 to disclose they were sexually abused as children in the former associations.

A report by child protection expert Ian Elliott in 2020 concluded the abuse had been tolerated at the highest levels of the former bodies, and covered up for decades to protect the reputation of the scouting movement.

The organisation’s latest financial accounts estimate it is currently facing liabilities of €6.8 million from legal cases over alleged historical abuse.

Senior figures in the youth organisation previously committed to try and avoid survivors having to fight protracted legal battles through the courts for compensation.

In correspondence last September, the organisation’s solicitors, Sheehan & Company LLP, stated Scouting Ireland hoped to set up a redress scheme in the future for alleged victims.

In a further October 14th, 2022, letter, the solicitors said while Scouting Ireland wished “over time” to establish a scheme, “it has not taken steps to do so”.

The letter to Coleman Legal Partners, which is representing about 30 alleged scouting abuse victims, said Sheehan & Company would be in contact “when we are in a position to advance matters”.

Norman Spicer, a solicitor with Coleman Legal Partners, said despite the suggestion of a future redress scheme, the current approach appeared to be to continue to “vigorously defend” claims.

Mr Spicer said this was “much to the detriment of the victims who are forced to spend years pursuing the organisation through difficult and costly litigation”.

A spokeswoman for the youth organisation said there was no further update in respect of the potential redress scheme.

Among the more than 50 actions pending are those of nine men who are suing Scouting Ireland over alleged abuse by convicted abuser David O’Brien, who told gardaí he estimated he had molested between 30 and 40 children as a scout leader.

O’Brien, from Benburb Street, Dublin, was previously convicted of sexually abusing 10 boys in the 1970s and 1980s and is currently serving 11 years in prison.

At least two civil cases have been filed over alleged abuse by former scout leader David Barry, who was jailed for five years in 2021. Barry, from Bishopstown, Co Cork, pleaded guilty to the sexual abuse of 10 boy scouts between 1986 and 2008.

The organisation is facing two civil cases over alleged abuse by Michael Noel Sheehan of Chimneyfields, Grenville, Co Cork, who last year was convicted of indecently assaulting a boy scout in the 1980s. It is understood the organisation previously paid a settlement in one case taken by a survivor who alleged he was abused by Sheehan.