DS's scout leader has just been found guilty.....

[GrimblesMother]

...and I feel shaken and so, so bloody angry.

It's here

DS is fine, he left cubs before the bloke was arrested and has not been abused by anyone in any way, but he could have been and that's scarey.

And the other helpers, those lovely volunteers.

If my husband was accused of a string of offences against children - I would be very VERY concerned. No way would I blindly stand by him. I would want to know the truth, and most definately WOULD believe the kids' account of events.

So a 14 year old made an accusation against your dp you would automatically believe the 14 year old?

Grimbles, I really feel for you, it's a horrible situation and thank goodness your DS is okay.

Last year, my DS1's deputy head was convicted of similar crimes. I know how much your stomach drops when you hear the news, how you analyse everything, how terrible you feel that you ever trusted that person. DS1's school is a special school, many children have very severe SN. I'm 99% sure that nothing happened to my DS but because of the difficulties of many of the children I (and many involved with the school) fear that we may never know the extent of what he did.

I hope you and your DS get over the shock soon.

With an odd incident I might keep an open mind - but would always be inclined to believe the child.

My dp's a scout leader. If an accusation was made against him by one if the 14 year olds they I would fully support him being suspended and investigated of course. But I would not believe for a moment that he had done it. So I thunk criticism of this man's wife is incredibly unfair.

Seeker - in this story we're talking a string of offences against this guy over a 24 year period. Some offences didn't even make it to court.

I feel for you and your DS Grimbles. There was another case of a Scout leader found guilty of abuse in Winscombe I think it was, so not far from you. It was probably about 5 years ago now. Him and his wife lived in East Brent and both committed suicide after the trial.

Can't find a link to it now , might not have been Winscombe where the Scout pack was but somewhere round there. We used to live round the corner from where they lived. Reading the title of your thread made me remember instantly and I was a bit shocked to see that this case is so close.

There seems to be a high proportion of abusers in professions like this. Do you think it's just reported more in the media for shock value, or do abusers tend to go into these professions? I must say, I worried about it when DS joined Beavers

We had a very similar case locally reported here. I saw the chap in question only a couple of months ago doing some Christmas shopping so he's clearly out. It absolutely rocked the local community (many of my friends were in his care at some point or another) and he was a very well known man, well liked, well respected and I even worked with him for 18 months when I was a teenager. It's a massive shock for individuals and a community and terrible that it seems quite common.

I remember a similar incident when I was child in Thames Ditton, Surrey. Childline had just been set up and it made it possible for the poor boys to report the abuse.

My brother was not in the gentlman's pack, but he did meet the man at a jamboree. My mother felt sick that my brother had been in the same room as this man.

This is why leaders are not supposed to be left on their own with any children. It's another reason I get very cross with parents who just dump their children without checking there's enough adults to cover. (This happens frequently.)

It puts both the children and the adults at risk, but sometimes parents just don't seem to realise what the consequences could be.

The rules are quite strict about never being alone with a child.

A child in my friend's troop had a minor accident and had to be taken up to A&E. The leader took him but she couldn't take him alone, so had to take another child as 'escort'. They had arranged for the boy's parent's to meet them at the hospital and were expecting to leave the child there which would mean the leader would then be returning with the escort now unaccompanied!

She therefore had to take a 3rd child to escort the 2nd one!