A FORMER Perthshire Scout leader who sexually abused two 15-year-old boys when they stayed overnight at his house on a bogus camping trip was jailed for nine months at Perth Sheriff Court yesterday.

Alan Grant (42), Pitfour Road, St Madoes, had been the victim of sexual assaults when he was a teenager, the court was told.

On sentencing him, Sheriff Robert McCreadie took this into account and the fact the assaults were not as serious as some, but described them as a “gross betrayal of trust” that involved misleading the Scouts’ parents and supplying the boys with alcohol before the assaults took place.

At a previous court appearance Grant admitted that on two occasions between January 1 and March 19 he pretended to the parents of three boys that a Scout camp was to take place at his home, prepared parental permission slips which he uttered as genuine and induced the parents to believe a genuine Scout camp was taking place, the truth being there was no camp and he fraudulently induced them to permit the Scouts to attend at his home address.

He also pled guilty that on March 18 or 19 he supplied two 15-year-olds with liquor and sexually assaulted them.

In his plea of mitigation, defence solicitor Jamie Baxter said the three boys, two of whom were assaulted, were all seeking to gain a Zodiac badge which involved camping out one night a month over a period of a year.

A tent was to be put up in Grant’s back garden. After the first overnight stay, the boys decided “this would be a good excuse for a party” and persuaded Grant that this take place.

“Camps” were organised for January and March so other parties could take place. Mr Baxter said Grant allowed himself to fall into the position where the boys treated him more as a friend than a guardian.

On the March camp night the three boys and Grant all consumed alcohol that he supplied and the boys held a “drinking competition among themselves.”

They fell asleep in the living room and Grant woke up in the early hours and committed the assault on two of the boys. The incident was “of short duration,” there was a “hulla- baloo” and the boys left at 3am. One of the parents reported the incident to the local Scout movement and the police became involved.

Mr Baxter said Grant co-operated with the police, was remorseful and attempted to take his own life. He stressed this was a “one-off incident” but Grant acknowledged there “must have been something in the background” that led him to do it. Mr Baxter mentioned a two-year period in Grant’s teens when he was sexually assaulted by a family friend.

Grant apologised through Mr Baxter to the boys and the Scouting movement. As well as being a Scout leader he was the assistant area commissioner.

Before sentencing, a hearing took place when Grant challenged aspects of the social inquiry reports prepared on him.

Ann Gavin, from the criminal justice service of Perth and Kinross Council, said she and Lisa Paton, from the Tay Project for sex offenders, interviewed Grant to prepare the reports. These said Grant admitted feeling sexually attracted to the two boys and to having sexual fantasies about them, as well as planning the assaults.

Cross-examined by depute fiscal John Malpass, Grant acknowledged their account of the interview was in fact “true and fair.”

Grant was placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years and will be on licence for three. The sheriff will also recommend he is put on a list of persons unsuitable to work with children.