Almost 90,000 sexual abuse claims expected against US Boy Scouts

This article is more than 12 months old

Nov 18, 2020 06:00 am

WASHINGTON : Almost 90,000 alleged victims of sexual abuse that took place in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) had come forward late Monday, the deadline to receive compensation from the organisation, a lawyer for the victims said.

Attorney Michael Pfau said that there had been "88,000 claims filed to date. It will probably be 100,000 by day's end".

The figure, revealing the scale of alleged abuse committed over decades by scout leaders, dwarfs the roughly 11,000 complaints believed to have been filed in recent years against the Catholic Church.

"We are devastated by the number of lives impacted by past abuse in scouting and moved by the bravery of those who have come forward," BSA said in a statement.

"We are heartbroken that we cannot undo their pain." - AFP