Boy Scout Leader Gets 10 Years for Sexually Abusing Kids in His Troop
A one-time Boy Scout leader was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison for sexually assaulting three troop members in the 1990s.
In August 2018, former scoutmaster Stephen Corcoran admitted to molesting three former Boy Scouts and pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual assault, NJ.com reported.
Corcoran is already serving a seven-year sentence after a 2017 conviction on 11 charges in a separate child pornography case, NJ.com reported. Friday’s sentence will run concurrent to Corcoran’s current sentence.
The case against Corcoran first came out in 2011, when a former troop member told police Corcoran had sexually assaulted him when he was a juvenile.
Corcoran was still active with the Boy Scouts at the time of the accusation, according to another report from NJ.com.
An investigation brought to light two other former Scouts who said Corcoran had sexually assaulted them in the late 90s. One of the victims claimed that he had been abused by Corcoran for several years.
In 2012, the former Scouts filed a lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America, alleging that Corcoran began grooming them for sexual abuse when they were 11 and 12 years old.
They claimed that many of the assaults happened during Boy Scout-sponsored events and at Boy Scout camps, according to NJ.com.
The suit claimed that Corcoran’s leadership role in the Boy Scouts allowed him to establish himself as a trusted mentor.
“There’s two people that victimized my client. The boy scouts basically gave (Corcoran) shelter and cloaked in secrecy the abuse that was occurring,” a lawyer for the case, Victor Herlinsky Jr., told NJ.com in 2012.
The Boy Scouts have gotten coverage in recent years for their increasingly politically correct policies.
But while leaders focused on aligning the organization’s policies with the left, serious problems in the organization were allowed to continue.
One of the organization’s recent updates was allowing girls, including those who identify as boys, to join troops at all levels. The organization has also publicly stated its acceptance of gay troop leaders.
In 2018, Boy Scouts of America again made headlines when it announced that it was changing its name to the more gender-neutral Scouts BSA, a change scheduled to go into effect in February.
Scouting has received acclaim from the left for its moves away from Judeo-Christian values and toward more liberal policies emphasizing “tolerance.”
A little more emphasis on protecting its members from predators like Stephen Corcoran might make more sense than trying to appease the American left — which will never be satisfied until it has destroyed an American tradition like scouting.
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