Boy Scout files reveal long history of child sex abuse cases

(Reuters) - A popular Colorado Boy Scout leader named Floyd Slusher allegedly had a strategy when it came to molesting boys: He first plied his victims with alcohol, then abused them and threatened to kill anyone who talked.

On one occasion in 1976, according to police, Slusher told a Scout as he undressed the child that "what I'm going to do now, if I get arrested, after I get out of jail, I'll come after you and your family." It wasn't the first time that he had been accused of abusing a Scout - an investigator later concluded there were too many victims to interview - nor was it the first time that Boy Scouts of America leaders had been told about the alleged assaults.

They had placed Slusher on "probation" four years earlier after he was accused of molesting Scouts at a camp in Germany. Slusher, who was convicted of sexually abusing a child in 1977, is among those named in 1,247 files on suspected and convicted pedophiles that the Boy Scouts kept from public view until Thursday, when they were released under a judge's order. The roughly 20,000 pages of files lay bare disturbing incidents of child sexual abuse within one of America's most respected organizations between 1965 and 1985 and illustrate its long struggle to keep pedophiles out of its ranks.

KEEPING INCIDENTS QUIET

Since at least 1919, the Boy Scouts has maintained the internal files to keep suspected pedophiles from re-entering the organization. But in a number of cases, the files show, the organization failed to take proper steps in suspected cases of abuse.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/18/us-usa-boyscouts-abuse-idUSBRE89H0ZF20121018