Kit says if there had been more supervision when he went on a Scout trip, he might not have been abused
All names and identifying details have been changed.
Participants have given us permission to share their experiences.
Kit was bullied in the Cub Scouts, so he was pleased when an older boy befriended him.
But the teenager sexually abused him over several nights on a camping trip.
Kit was eight years old when he joined the Cub Scouts. At first he wasn’t very happy there because he couldn’t join the same troop as his friends, and ended up in one that was ‘rougher’, where he was bullied.
He soon had the opportunity to go on a camping trip. The boys were divided into groups who would share a tent, and a teenage Scout member was assigned to each group.
The older boy who was put in charge of Kit’s group immediately gave all the younger boys nicknames.
Kit adds ‘He used to make fun of me slightly, but was also nice and everyone in the group looked up to him. I remember feeling accepted and happy that there was someone cool that liked me’.
They put up the tent and Kit’s sleeping bag ended up laid out next to the older boys. After they had finished the boys started to leave but the older boy asked Kit to stay behind. He relates ‘I can't remember the events leading up to what happened, but I remember him French kissing me and me wondering what was going on’.
Kit remembers the older boy saying they should join the others. He says he was still processing what had happened, and adds ‘I didn't think too much of it. I think I was just happy to be accepted’.
The rest of the day passed normally, with group activities. After the evening meal they went to the tent to go to bed, and soon after, the Cub leader shone a light in the tents to check everyone was asleep.
Kit says he always had trouble sleeping when he was away from home, and the older boy was also awake. They talked, and the boy led the conversation to sex, then kissed Kit and made him take part in masturbation. Later, he took Kit to the shower block where he continued sexually abusing him.
The older boy sexually abused Kit every night on the camping trip, and sometimes during the day if there was an opportunity.
Kit says ‘Looking back on it, it's astounding no one noticed anything, as he exclusively spent time around me and in our free time he would disappear in the tent with me’.
Kit wanted to share his experience because he believes that if the leaders had been even slightly more aware, the abuse might not have happened, or his abuser would have been caught. He thinks they should have checked on the boys in their tents more often than just once, soon after they were sent to bed.
Kit adds that because he was so young, he didn't understand the full extent of what had happened. His church school did not educate children about sexual abuse.
Kit says he didn’t tell anyone he had been sexually abused but he wishes he had, ‘as he could still be out there doing this today’.