Lawsuit to Reveal Secret Boy Scout Sex Files

The lawyer for a man who was molested by a Boy Scout leader has obtained 1,000 of the Scouts’ secret “perversion files”—which he says prove that they’ve been covering up such abuses for years—and he plans to release some of them at a trial now in progress in Oregon. The Boy Scouts of America have long kept an extensive archive detailing sex abuse by Scout leaders, but they’ve rarely been seen in public, the AP explains.

The case is being brought by a 37-year-old man who was molested in the 1980s by assistant Scoutmaster, and serial molester, Timur Dykes. There have been many similar suits, but either they’ve been settled out of court, or judges have denied access to the files. The Scouts argue that they’re “replete with confidential information,” and say they’re only kept to prevent known abusers from being re-hired elsewhere. “They were trying to do the right thing by trying to track these folks,” their lawyer says. (More Boy Scouts of America stories.)