A man, who alleges he was sexually abused as ten-year old by a then 20-year-old scout leader in Cork over 40 years ago, said the reason he didn’t mention the abuse when making an earlier complaint against another scout leader was because the abuse by the 20-year-old was less horrific.
The 54-year-old complainant, who can’t be named for legal reasons, told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that he did not mention the abuse by the defendant when making his first complaint to gardaí because he suffered much more severe abuse at the hands of the other scout leader.
“It (the abuse by the other scout leader) was like a Hiroshima-type bomb landing in my lap – I was subjected to oral rape, anal rape, masturbation – the abuse (by the accused in this case) was a like a grenade-size bomb in comparison,” he told the jury and Judge Elva Duffy.
The complainant was responding to cross-examination by defence counsel, Siobhán Lankford, who questioned why he did not mention the alleged abuse by her client when making a statement to gardaí in 2000 about the other abuse for which a different scout leader was jailed.
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The 63-year-old former scoutmaster on trial denies three counts of indecent assault on the complainant on dates between June 1st 1979 and August 31st 1979 which the complainant alleges happened at his local Scout Hall in Cork city and at Kilcully Scout Camp outside Blackpool in Cork.
The complainant told how he joined his local troop of the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland (CSBI) from his local troop of cubs in the summer of 1979 and he used to parade and line up in his local Scout Hall for inspection by the accused and three other scout leaders in charge of the 50 strong troop.
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 centreways 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 discreet 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 that 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 to Ms Lankford under cross-examination that he was suing the defendant for compensation and that he was also suing the scout leader convicted in 2003 of abusing him as well as the CSBI for what happened to him while a scout in their care.
Ms Lankford put it to the complainant that this complaint was all about money, but the man said that the criminal complaint was simply about justice and letting people see what the CSBI was really like though he agreed with her that his civil actions were indeed about getting compensation.
“Yes, they are about money – how else can the law compensate?” said the man, making the point that he had suffered damage while in the care of the CBSI and was simply seeking compensation in the same way he would seek compensation if injured in a car crash. The case continues.
