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<\/p>\nA FORMER Boy Scout has told how he was sexually abused as a teen by a camp leader who would give the same gift to the youngsters he liked.<\/p>\n
Adam Steed, 41, has spent the last 26 years living with the trauma of being molested as a 14-year-old boy.<\/p>\n
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Adam has told his story as survivors and whistleblowers recount the Boy Scouts of America's decades-long cover-up of sex abuse cases in a new Netflix doc. <\/p>\n
As a junior counsellor at Camp Little Lemhi, Idaho, Adam was one of millions of young kids going to summer<\/span> camp to be part of the legendary Boy Scouts of America.<\/p>\n In 1997, the teenager found a new friend in 25-year-old Bradley Stowell, who moved to his town.<\/p>\n Stowell was part of the Mormon community and a senior member of staff at the local Boys Scouts – and later confessed to molesting at least 24 boys over a nine-year period.<\/p>\n The boys looked up to him – and the parents saw him as a charming, friendly, young man.<\/p>\n But as Adam grew closer to Stowell, the boundaries loosened and the Scout leader showed his true vile nature.<\/p>\n Bravely speaking the The Sun, Adam said: "Looking back now I realise how totally inappropriate the whole relationship was.<\/p>\n "Brad would make me come to his house, watch movies and massage my shoulders and then go so much further.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n "I slept through it the first few times but then started to wake up as it was happening but didn't want Brad to know, so I never said anything."<\/p>\n Just after the sickening encounters began, camp started in Idaho and the abuse continued.<\/p>\n As a senior member of staff, Stowell exploited his power<\/span> over Adam and several other boys wherever he could around camp, including the boys' shared bedroom.<\/p>\n Adam said he would wake up and find Stowell "completely naked" in his bed. <\/p>\n "It was super scary as we were the only people there, way out in the middle of nowhere," Adam said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was sexually abusing me and my brain didn\u2019t register what was happening and it was really confusing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n The paedo Boy Scout leader was known to give necklaces with the Boy Scouts of America logo on to the boys he liked most around camp.<\/p>\n And it was the chilling gifts that prompted Adam to start talking to the boys who also had one.<\/p>\n One boy told him about similar experiences of abuse he faced at the hands of Stowell.<\/p>\n He was sexually abusing me and my brain didn\u2019t register what was happening<\/p>\n Adam spoke to the camp leader in Idaho "at least four maybe five times" to tell him about the abuse he and several other boys were facing.<\/p>\n But he was told to "save scouting" by not telling anyone and made to keep it a secret from his parents.<\/p>\n This was all done out of fear of America's family friendly organisation being exposed for covering up decades of sexual abuse by their so-called trusting adults.<\/p>\n After reporting what was going on, Adam remembered a shift in his abuser's attitude towards him.<\/p>\n "He got really concerned that I was talking to everybody and didn\u2019t understand why I was doing it," Adam said.<\/p>\n "He started getting really aggressive and angry and trying to give other kids attention as if it was going to hurt me somehow.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam told how one time the twisted individual came into the shared bedroom and gave a boy The Book of Mormon to hold.<\/p>\n He then slid his hand under the book and began fondling the child in front of the group of boys, all aged between 14 and 18.<\/p>\n \u201cHorrifying stuff kept happening after I had contacted the staff leaders over the phone, and I kept going back to the office<\/span> but Brad was second in charge at the camp so he was protected," Adam said.<\/p>\n The brave man remembers his fellow scouts sharing stories about rumours they'd heard around camp.<\/p>\n One of the stories involved the cook's son who was allegedly sexually abused by Stowell when he was only seven-years-old in the camp's main office.<\/p>\n The heartbreaking story would end with the young man crying behind the blinds.<\/p>\n But it was a story a lot of the boys laughed at, according to Adam.<\/p>\n After trying to warn the Boy Scouts of the paedophile and tragically getting nowhere, Adam bravely told his dad.<\/p>\n Together they contacted the Idaho press and the local police and got Stowell arrested at camp.<\/p>\n The children he had touched got to see their abuser finally caught at the scene of the heinous crimes.<\/p>\n Stowell confessed to molesting at least 24 boys.<\/p>\n He took a plea bargain and originally received just 150 days in prison – less than a week per child he sexually abused.<\/p>\n This was later increased to 15 years of probation with an additional three years in prison for violating his parole.<\/p>\n It later emerged that in 1988, when Stowell was just 16-years-old, he had confessed to his mum, church bishop, and a police officer that he had touched a six-year-old boy in his neighbourhood.<\/p>\n Horrifying stuff kept happening after I had contacted the staff leaders over the phone<\/p>\n He was sent to six months of church-sponsored counselling before being hired to teach first aid at Camp Little Lemhi to little kids.<\/p>\n In the sworn testimony he delivered in 1997, Stowell said that he began preying on Boy Scouts that summer.<\/p>\n Speaking to The Idaho Falls Post in 2005, Stowell said he used to be a molester but claimed to be completely rehabilitated.<\/p>\n Adam has appeared on podcasts since and was the subject of Brian Knappenberger\u2019s Sundance documentary, Church and the Fourth Estate, where he told his story on film.<\/p>\n Despite the abuse he suffered from a young age, Adam feels like he has let go of most of the trauma.<\/p>\n He said: "I do feel like I was a very fortunate lucky one as I believe very strongly that when you hold criminals accountable and dethrone institutional corporations that allow that type of thing your mental health problems leave you.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can have a normal life again.\u201d<\/p>\n The Boy Scouts of America have faced over 82,000 allegations of abuse over the past 30 years and in 2023 they were ordered to pay out $2.4billion to the survivors.<\/p>\n Netflix's Scouts Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America reveals the true extent of the abuse.<\/p>\n The show features whistleblowers, a former cop, former Boy Scout employees, first person victim accounts and journalist Patrick Boyle – who reported on 1,200 confidential files on accusations of paedophilia in the organisation.<\/p>\n It came after the organisation filed for bankruptcy in February 2020, and thousands of victims filed lawsuits against the disgraced group.<\/p>\nMost read in The Sun<\/h2>\n
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