Boy Scouts Refused to Report Serial Rapist

Boy Scout officials in Southern California failed to report a child-molesting Scout leader who went on to rape children in Canada, the Los Angeles Times reports. Former Scout leader Rick Turley starting molesting Scouts in British Columbia in the 1970s. He even kidnapped one, served time, and re-enlisted as a Scout leader in Southern California. When he molested three more, parents refused to press charges, and he was allowed to return to Canada—where he worked as a Scout leader and continued to attack children.

The LA Times and CBC investigation looks at Turley's victims—one of whom says he is still scarred—and talks to a former Scouts staffer who says "leaders were more interested in covering it up and doing damage control." Turley admits that one call to police "probably would have put a stop to me years and years and years ago. That person who was Rick Turley was a monster." About 5,000 more monsters are apparently named in secret "perversion files" kept by the Boy Scouts of America. Some 1,200 allowed into evidence in a Scout sex abuse case last year are still under wraps, but child advocacy and victims' rights groups are fighting to get them opened. (More Boy Scouts stories.)