Sick Scout leader abused eight boys

A Scoutmaster who dubbed himself “The Colonel” has been jailed for 10 years for sexually abusing eight boys in his care.

David Ferron, 62, took the youngsters out of the Scout movement to form his own “quasi-military organisation” in order to prey on his victims, Manchester Crown Court heard.

He targeted boys at his base in Middleton, where he lived, and on camping trips, where he would strike when they were in their sleeping bags or in the showers.

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The abuse took place between 1987 and 1994 on boys aged between seven and 15. His victims came forward eight years after his conviction in 2001 for taking indecent photographs.

Ferron was jailed for 12 months in 2001 but police found more indecent photographs following his latest arrest and found he had opened three accounts on a social networking site and posed as two 13-year-old boys and a 50-year-old youth counsellor who specialised in sex.

Judge Clement Goldstone QC told him: “You are a depraved and perverted man.”

Ferron, of Mills Hill Road, Middleton, had pleaded guilty to 20 counts of indecent assault, six counts of indecency with a child, one count of attempted buggery and six counts of possessing indecent photographs. He also received lifetime bans from working with children and must sign the sex offenders register for life.