There is evidence that groups of sex offenders operated at the top of Scouting Ireland’s legacy organisations to protect each other and “facilitate” child abuse, a report by child protection expert Ian Elliott found. Scouting Ireland made a full organisational apology on foot of the report’s publication on Thursday. The report said one of the legacy bodies was a “seriously dysfunctional organisation”, with “sex offenders dominating the leadership for decades”. Even in cases where volunteers were facing multiple abuse allegations, “attempts were made to suppress these allegations being acted upon”, it said. Individuals facing child abuse allegations were permitted to move between scout troops, or between the two legacy organisations, it said.

Source: The Irish Times May 15, 2020 00:22 UTC