A prominent youth LGBTQ charity in the UK has recommended itself for police investigation over historical accusations of grooming and the sexual exploitation of children.
LGBT Youth Scotland has revealed that it had referred itself to Police Scotland after “new allegations” emerged against the charity after two men came forward to claim that they had been abused by members of the group when they were children.
One man said that he had sought out the charity as a 13-year-old to seek support for being homosexual. He alleged that rather than acting as a support system, LGBT Youth Scotland was “more like a social network to connect older men with teenagers”.
Another, Sam Cowie, who is currently a unitveristy student, said that charity workers had plied him with booze and cigarettes and a fake ID so that he could join them in gay nightclubs as a teenager. He told the online feminist magazine Reduxx that while the group initially appeared “friendly and nurturing” when he first came in contact as a 15-year-old while he was in foster care. However, he now claims that he was groomed and had been offered by older men to have sex for money.
In a statement provided to the Daily Telegraph, LGBT Youth Scotland, which received £400,000 from the Scottish government last year, in addtion to over £250,000 from local governments, said that they are “aware of allegations of historic exploitation from individuals who used our services in the past.”
“LGBT Youth Scotland takes any complaints and allegations seriously and we have reported these allegations to Police Scotland and will support them fully with any investigation. As a charity dedicated to the health and wellbeing of young people, we support and encourage anyone to speak out about, and report, abuse.”
Confirming the investigation, a Police Scotland spokesman said: “We have received a report and inquiries are ongoing into the allegations.”
LGBT Youth Scotland has previously faced a child sexual abuse scandal, with the former chief executive of the charity, James Rennie, being convicted in 2009 of being a ringleader in one of Scotland’s largest ever paedophile networks. The group claimed that his crimes were committed outside of the charity, however.
During his trial it emerged that Rennie had sent an email requesting: “Has anyone got any porn with young Down’s syndrome or learning difficulty kids?” Police later found images and videos of him abusing children.
Follwing his conviction, LGBT Youth Scotland said: “We are appalled by the abuse and exploitation of children by James Rennie, and wholeheartedly welcome his conviction.” His sentence was later controversially reduced from 13 to eight and a half years before he could seek parole.
Last week, the British government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport announced that LGBT Youth Scotland was one of 20 charities to win this year’s Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Volunteering Award for its “exceptional work to empower young people.”
“LGBT Youth Scotland – works to create safer spaces where LGBTI young people aged 13-25 can explore their identities in an affirming environment, learn new skills, gain confidence, develop resilience and find community,” the government said.
The charity was also among 50 groups to call for politicians in the devoloved Scottish parliament in Holyrood to back the leftist seperatist Scottish Nationl Party’s gender recognition law, which is set to lower the age that transgender people can legally change their gender from 18 to 16.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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