Jury deliberates fate of former Scout leader accused of abusing young boys on camps

The jury is out in the trial of a former Scouts NZ leader accused of sexually abusing boys on camps and tramps. Photo / File

WARNING: This story contains descriptions of sexual abuse against young people.

A jury is deliberating the fate of a former Scoutmaster accused of sexually abusing boys over four decades.

Judge Peter Hobbs has today summed up the complex and lengthy case to the jury in the Wellington District Court asking the group to deal with and focus on the evidence at hand.

The jury has retired and will now consider almost four weeks of evidence relating to 26 charges of sexual offending against six boys between the 1980s and 2010s.

Of those 26 charges, 16 involve alleged indecent acts with boys aged between 12 and 16.

The man on trial, aged in his early 70s, is subject to name suppression until a verdict is reached.

The suppression orders will then be revisited when the verdict is delivered. When that time comes is now in the hands of the jury.

The pensioner has been accused of sexually abusing boys in his care while on Scouts camps and tramps away, where nudity and going barefoot was encouraged.

Among the alleged offences, the scoutmaster is accused of exposing himself and forcing masturbation and oral and anal sex with boys.

He would also touch scouts’ feet, and wrestle and streak with the boys on the trips, the Crown claimed.

During the four-week trial, the Crown alleged the man used his position of power to promote a culture of inappropriate behaviour on the trips.

Crown prosecutor Claire Hislop said yesterday in her closing arguments that the man targeted vulnerable boys including one who “desperately wanted to be cool”, and another who sought validation from the man as a father figure he never had.

Hislop said the sexualised actions of the man, encouraging nudity and bare feet on camps where a “Bear Grylls tough man culture” developed, shifted what was considered appropriate.

The man kept naked images of boys he had taken on trips away stored in a shoebox in his office, other images of boys were described to be like “glamour shots”.

Defence lawyer Mike Antunovic said in his closing address that the allegations were “inherently unbelievable” and “nonsense”.

“Contamination” of witnesses was a concern of the defence, and Antunovic said the Crown failed to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Antunovic said his client was dedicated to Scouts NZ and was fondly regarded, giving scouts the best opportunities, and in some cases caring for the young men more than their parents.