Scout leader guilty of sex abuse

Victim was underage. jury rules

A FORMER Thatcham Scout leader has been convicted of performing sex acts on a boy he befriended.

Jurors heard Peter Swynford, aged 52, provided alcohol and cannabis before sexually abusing a boy who he met in the Cubs.

The court heard how Swynford invited the boy to his home, where the pair would masturbate while watching pornography.

The jury at Reading Crown Court also heard that the boy alleged waking up naked in a bed at Swynford’s house with Swynford performing a sex act on him while he slept.

The string of sexual assaults only came to light years later after the victim broke down and told his partner that he had been abused as a child.

The jury heard that the friendship had developed after they took part in activities through the Thatcham Scouting Association and the Berkshire Scouting Association.

Mr Swynford admitted engaging in sexual activity but said the pair would only ever touch themselves while watching pornography.

Later acts of sexual activity, Swynford claimed, only happened once the boy turned 16 – the age of consent.

Swynford, of Kenton Road, Reading, faced 10 counts of indecent assault on a boy aged between 13 and 16 years between 1991 and 1994.

Summing up the case on Monday, Judge Angela Morris said: “The prosecution says that Mr Swynford was in his role as a Scout leader or assistant and came to know the victim and there were a number of things they were mutually interested in...

“They had become friends but that had overstepped the mark because Mr Swynford abused his position as a Scout leader and friend of the victim to the point where he had engaged and indulgently taken part in the indecent assault of the victim.

“The prosecution say these activities occurred before he [the boy] was 16, that it was the age of consent.

“They say there was no coercion but that there was consent and he was even enthusiastic. It matters not if you are sure he was under 16.

“If you are sure the activity happened before he was the age of 16 then you will find the defendant guilty.”

Mr Swynford, a married father-of-three, expressed his regret and described feeling shameful and horrid.

Judge Morris added: “He says there was no mutual touching.

“This was a progressive thing where they were friends as time went on but it was only after he turned 16 that any mutual touching occurred.

“It was then that it took place when the alleged victim was 16, not through coercion or of that nature.

“He says that when you look at the evidence and documentation you cannot be sure that the alleged victim had not got confused about the dates and that only when the documents were put in front of him, was he clear.

“Because of the delay, he has in effect mis-remembered the time when this occurred.

“Which side of the line did the events fall on? Are you sure the events happened before he was 16 or have the prosecution failed to make you sure? Sometimes the passage of time may even play tricks with your mind,” Judge Morris cautioned.

The jury deliberated for more than six hours before convicting Swynford on four of the 10 counts of indecent assault. Three were by 11-1 majority and the other by a majority of 10-2. The other six counts were not-guilty verdicts directed by the judge.

Swynford is due to be sentenced on April 22.