More than 80,000 victims of sexual abuse among American Scouts will have come forward by Monday evening, November 16, deadline to benefit from a compensation fund set up by the organization as part of their deposit of assessment, told AFP one of their lawyers.
Read also: Pedophilia: a report curls the attitude of the English and Welsh Catholic Church
“
To our knowledge there have been 11,000 complaints globally against the Catholic Church, we believe the Boy Scout cases will be eight times more numerous at 5:00
pm
tonight
” (10:00 pm GMT Monday), said Andrew Van Arsdale, member a team of lawyers who represent the victims of these abuses.
"
We are horrified by the number of lives that have suffered from past abuse among Scouts and touched by the courage of those who have come out of the silence,
" Boy Scouts of America said in a statement without confirming the figures.
2.2 million members
The organization, founded in 1910, is the primary scouting movement in the United States.
It has 2.2 million members aged 5 to 21.
Weighted down by accusations of sexual abuse, she filed for bankruptcy in February in order to freeze all compensation claims filed by former boy scouts in court and redirect them to a compensation fund.
The American Scouts, who estimate their assets at more than $ 1 billion, have not indicated how much they intend to spend on the fund.
The revelations of sexual abuse among America's Boy Scouts first came to light in 2012, when the
Los Angeles Times
published internal documents relating to decades of sexual abuse among their ranks.
It was then a question of some 5000 "
files of perversion
", corresponding to as many alleged aggressors among the scout leaders.
Most had never been reported to the authorities, the organization confined itself to removing them.
The lawsuits have since multiplied against the American Scouts, in particular after the extension by several States of the limitation periods for pedophile assaults.