Every place where children spend time—be it school, daycare, extra-curricular activities, sports, membership organizations—sexual predators are lurking. Child molesters seek jobs where there is the best chance of connecting with children who might be vulnerable and easily groomed for abuse.
One such place is working as a volunteer or as a paid employee for The Boy Scouts of America. Less than two weeks after The Boy Scouts of America reached an agreement to pay $850 million (with over 84,000 people who say they were abused while scouts), authorities arrested another sexual predator association with the organization.
Regarding the settlement, a victim said,
“As a former boy scout who is a sexual abuse survivor, I am gratified The Boy Scouts are taking responsibility for the sexual abuse that occurred….”
Back at the summer camp: A troop leader discovered cameras when he and his boys were cleaning the bathrooms. The troop leader called the local sheriff’s department. He watched the bathroom and noticed the 39-year-old man lurking nearby. The man entered the bathroom and appeared to be looking for something. Later, claiming he’d misplaced his phone charger in the bathroom.
The officers seized the cameras and examined them. They discovered children doing things they shouldn’t have been doing, but maybe expected of kids. The cameras also recorded the 39-year-old man placing them at angles to catch unclothed boys and girls. The victims did not know they had been recorded.
Authorities arrested and charged a 39-year-old volunteer with placing hidden cameras in bathrooms at scout camp.
I’ll spare you the graphic details of what he did with the recordings. Let’s just say, being a juror at his trial would have been uncomfortable.
After serving over two years awaiting trial, the man pleaded guilty to the production of child pornography and attempted production of child pornography.
In hopes of receiving a shorter sentence, the attorney claimed that the man now understood the potential connection between his actions and the childhood sexual abuse he experienced at a boy scout summer camp. They asked for mental health treatment while incarcerated.
A judge sentenced him to 22 years in prison and supervised release for life with a special condition prohibiting him from any contact with a minor without permission.
At the sentencing, one parent said,
“He [the Boy Scout volunteer] was supposed to be protecting the scouts and was supposed to be someone children could trust.”
The FBI, Project Safe Childhood, and the local Sheriff Department worked jointly on this sad, but true crime.
Source: United States District Court, U.S. Department of Justice, NBC News, Law & Crime, The Kansas City Star
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