Former Portadown Scout leader jailed again over sex offences
A disgraced former Scout leader who was once decorated by the Queen, was handed a three-year jail sentence on Tuesday (December 2) for the repeated sex abuse of a teenage boy
Sentencing Wilson Alexander Reid at Belfast Crown Court, Judge Gordon Kerr KC said the sentence would have been triple that but for the fact the 67-year-old had already served a ten-year sentence for other, similar offending which predated the offending before him.
Judge Kerr explained he had to ask himself whether in theory, Reid would have been given a greater sentence if the present case had been dealt with along with the earlier case.
He ruled given the degree of culpability and the harm Reid caused, he was imposing three-year sentences on each count.
At an earlier hearing Reid, with an address on Ferris Bay Roa, Islandmagee, but who is originally from Portadown, entered guilty pleas to a total of 10 offences, including eight charges of indecent assault and two of gross indecency, committed on a single victim between November 1, 2001 and August 31, 2006.
While five other, similar offences were “left on the books” by the prosecution, the court heard the pleas were entered “on a full-facts basis”.
During his sentencing remarks, Judge Kerr said it was clear that at the time of the offending, Reid was heavily involved in the Scouts and as the assistant district commissioner, he had used that position in order to gain access to the victim, who was aged between 14 and 19 at the time.
Reid accepted that he gave the boy alcohol and let him look at pornographic material before he subjected him to reported bouts of sexual abuse, behaviour which had elements of grooming, said the judge.
The victim told police he had been abused “hundreds of times” in Reid’s home and that while the large majority of it amounted to inappropriate touching, there were also instances of performing sex acts and attempted penetration.
Judge Kerr said the Victim Impact Statement “graphically sets out” how the victim’s life has been significantly affected by this ordeal at the hands of Reid, including years of “challenging behaviour”, issues with his mental health, alcohol and drugs “and self-blaming”.
The judge told the court ,however, the VIS does have a positive note, in that the victim expresses a desire to “turn my horrible experiences into something good”.
He told the court he also had a pre-sentence report in relation to Reid where, despite these offences and a previous history of abusing other children, the pensioner claims that his sexual interest was in adult females.
Reid, the judge said, accepted that he had abused the boy and that he had bought him food and alcohol and supplied him with pornographic materials.
That, Judge Kerr said, shows a pattern of grooming behaviour and while the levels of culpability and harm were high, the risk Reid now poses, has decreased since he was last before the court. That was down to his deteriorating health and increasing age, said the judge.
Imposing the three-year sentence, Judge Kerr said given those features, along with the fact Reid will be on licence and has not committed any recent offending, he was declining to impose a Sexual Offences Prevention Order. He does, however remain on the police Sex Offenders Register.