Former Moncton scout leader charged with sex abuse

A former scout leader has been charged for allegedly abusing a 13-year-old boy in Moncton, N.B., nearly 50 years ago.

David Wolfe, 68, is facing two counts of indecent assault in connection with allegations by Richard Dutkiewicz, RCMP confirmed on Thursday.

Dutkiewicz, 61, alleges he was repeatedly sexually assaulted by Wolfe in the mid-1960s, when Wolfe was an assistant scout master.

The alleged abuse — oral sex — occurred at Wolfe's home, not far from West Riverview School, where the scout meetings were held, said Dutkiewicz, who was a patrol leader at the time.

Wolfe is also charged with using threats to keep a person from reporting a crime in connection with allegations by a second male complainant, said Const. Damien Thériault.

No other details about that case have been released and none of the allegations have been proven in court.

Wolfe, who now lives in Nova Scotia, has not yet entered any pleas.

He is scheduled to appear in Moncton provincial court on Nov. 16.

Years of shame, guilt

Dutkiewicz said he filed his police complaint in late 2011, after suffering years of shame and guilt. It was a CBC News report that prompted him to act, he said.

"On the CBC website interactive, it shows scout complaints. I clicked on New Brunswick and it said zero, and I knew that wasn't true."

He found out about the second alleged victim on Wednesday, when an RCMP officer called.

"I didn't scream and didn't react, but after I put down the phone, I was 'Yes, yes! This is no longer just me now,'" said Dutkiewicz.

"I don't know how much damage he has done to the other person, but he has done a hell of a lot to me."

Dutkiewicz alleges the abuse occurred when Wolfe invited him over to play pool.

After three alleged incidents of oral sex, he tried to tell his father, but his father accused him of being "queer." So he didn't take his complaint any further. He just stopped going to scouts and buried his emotions.

But the abuse cost him his 27-year marriage and strained his relationship with his three children, he said.

Police located Wolfe at the Dartmouth Seniors Service Centre in Nova Scotia, where there was a picture of him on the website as the centre's treasurer, according to Dutkiewicz.

Boy Scouts of America release 'perversion' files

News of the charges against Wolfe came the same day the Boy Scouts of America released confidential files it kept on men it suspected of child sex abuse.

The so-called perversion files from 1965 to 1985 were ordered released following a two-year court battle and could prompt a new round of criminal prosecutions, officials have said.

Last December, Scouts Canada issued a blanket apology to any former scouts who were sexually abused by its volunteer leaders.

The youth organization also announced it had hired an outside company to review its past records and appointed an expert panel to examine whether its current child protection policies are working.

The announcement came nearly two months after an investigation by CBC-TV's the fifth estate found that Scouts Canada kept a "confidential list" of pedophiles barred from the organization and had also signed confidentiality agreements with child sex abuse victims.

The investigation revealed that scout leaders abused about 340 children from the 1940s until present.