A warrant for his arrest was issued in 2012, but he was never convicted despite multiple claims of sexual abuse.
Warning: This story includes details of child sex abuse that readers may find distressing.
Netflix’s new documentary, Scouts Honour: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America, aims to expose child abuse scandals in the Boy Scouts through exclusive interviews with whistleblowers, survivors and former employees.
The trailer notes there have been 82,000 abuse claims documented against former Scout leaders, who were in positions of power and had a duty to protect children enrolled with the personal growth programme.
William Sheehan was a former Boy Scout leader, who faced allegations of child sexual abuse while working at Camp Miles in Southwest Florida, shocking the town of Foxborough.
Read on to find out everything we know about what happened to William Sheehan.
What happened to William Sheehan?
In September 2012, the town of Foxborough was rocked by the news that eight men had reported they were repeatedly fondled, sexually abused and raped over a period of 20 years by William Sheehan when they were children.
A warrant for his arrest was issued and Sheehan was charged with nine felony counts of indecent assault on a child under the age of 14 and two felony counts of indecent assault on a child aged 14 or older.
However, the former Scout leader was never arrested because of his ill health and was deemed unfit to stand trial, so the warrant for his arrest was never enforced. At the time, Sheehan was said to be in the late stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
Sheehan’s registration with the Boy Scouts was suspended in 1989 after he was accused of molesting a minor at Camp Miles during the summers of 1986 to 1989. At the time, Sheehan denied the allegations and any records of the case no longer exist because there was no arrest.
In a statement released in 2020, President of the Boy Scouts of America Roger Mosby said: “We are devastated by the number of lives impacted by past abuse in Scouting and moved by the bravery of those who have come forward. We are heartbroken that we cannot undo their pain.
“The Boy Scouts of America is taking responsibility for past failures, and we are working to support survivors… We are also working to ensure that we continue to bring Scouting’s unparalleled benefits to youth and families for many years to come – with their safety as our absolute top priority.
“While any instance of abuse is one too many, the overwhelming majority of claims filed in the national organisation’s Chapter 11 case relate to allegations of abuse that occurred before our modern youth protection policies were implemented more than three decades ago. That does not in any way absolve us of what happened in the past, but I hope it demonstrates that we take youth protection extremely seriously.”
Where is William Sheehan now?
In March 2017, William Sheehan died of late stage Alzheimer’s disease. He was never convicted of inappropriate behaviour of any kind in Florida or Massachusetts.
Scouts Honour: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America is available to stream on Netflix now.
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