Scout Association referred to police over boy’s death on 2018 trip

UK

The Scout Association and one of its employees have been referred to police following an inquest into the death of a 16-year-old boy.

Ben Leonard, 16, from Stockport, Greater Manchester, fell 200ft off a cliff while on a Scout trip to North Wales in 2018.

He suffered a serious head injury after the fall at Great Orme in Llandudno on 26 August 2018.

A coroner has referred the organisation and the employee, who cannot be named due to a court order, for investigation for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

A jury found Ben was unlawfully killed after a two-month inquest at Manchester Civil Courts of Justice.

For legal reasons, juries cannot name any individuals in conclusions.

The inquest heard Ben and two friends took a different path to their peers and were unsupervised by Scout leaders who had “lost” the trio.

Inquest hears Ben Leonard was unaccompanied when he died on a scout trip. Pic: North Wales Police
Image:
Pic: North Wales Police

David Pojur, assistant coroner for North Wales east and central has referred The Scout Association and an employee to North Wales Police.

Jurors were not told about the police referral and the media were ordered not to report it until the jury reached their conclusions.

This was the third inquest into Ben’s death, after the first two were both aborted.

At the beginning of the most recent inquest, The Scout Association accepted responsibility for Ben’s death for the first time and publicly apologised.

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However, Jackie Leonard, Ben’s mother, told the hearing the apology was five-and-a-half years too late.

She said the treatment of her family had been “disgusting”.

Ben was a “thoughtful, very funny, extremely witty” boy who had planned to study TV and film at college, his mother said.

Ben Richmond KC, representing Ben’s family, said his life could have been saved if it weren’t for the “basic failure of care” to give simple safety instructions.

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