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Not guilty: Verdict in case of former Maidstone Scout leader Neil Porter

A former Scout leader has been found not guilty of three counts of child indecency, including watching as boys paraded naked in a church.

Neil Porter, who denied all the charges, was accused of watching from a balcony at the Methodist Church in Maidstone and directing the boys as they walked around the building in the nude, carrying flags.

The court was also told he performed a sex act on himself during a camping trip as he told a boy to read out loud from a pornographic magazine.

Former Scout leader Neil Porter
Former Scout leader Neil Porter

Finally, on another occasion Porter, a married self-employed plumber, was accused of telling the boy to photocopy his private parts.

Porter, of Cedar Drive, Barming, had denied the three charges of indecency with a child involving one boy and dating back more than 23 years.

And today a jury unanimously found him not guilty on all three counts.

Porter said in evidence there were no occasions when over-nighting with Scouts he was on his own.

“I would sleep in my own tent,” he told the jury of seven men and five women. “I didn’t ever sleep in a tent with the Scouts.”

Asked if he gave the boy a porn magazine and asked him to read it, he replied: “No, I didn’t.”

The case was heard at Maidstone Crown Court
The case was heard at Maidstone Crown Court

But judge Julian Smith revealed he had refused an application by the prosecution to put Porter’s previous convictions for downloading hundreds of child sex abuse images before the jury.

“I am satisfied the admission of this evidence will have such an adverse effect, I must not admit it,” he ruled.

"I would sleep in my own tent. I didn’t ever sleep in a tent with the Scouts," - Neil Porter

Porter was jailed for six months in January 2009 after admitting 15 offences of making indecent photos of children dating back to 2002.

The court heard he had used such search terms as “Lolitas” and “junior boys” and downloaded almost 2,000 images.

A judge said in imposing the sentence he was exercising mercy so that Porter could be at the birth of his second child.

During the latest trial, prosecutor Dominic Connolly had previously told the court Porter, now 46, was one of the leaders at the Methodist Scout group in Union Street, in the early 1990s.

Maidstone Crown Court. Picture: John Wardley
Maidstone Crown Court. Picture: John Wardley

The first offence considered in the recent trial was alleged to have happened on a camping trip in Kent. They were all in sleeping bags when Porter instructed the boy to read out a story from a pornographic magazine, Mr Connolly told Maidstone Crown Court at a previous hearing.

The boy said he remembered struggling with a word he had not heard before and Porter told him how to pronounce it. The youngster claimed he could tell Porter was performing a sex act in his sleeping bag.

Mr Connolly said the next incident was when Scouts stayed overnight at the community hall attached to the church. Once a month they would take part in a parade down the aisle with flags.

It was said the alleged naked parade was a parody of regular monthly flag parades.

The prosecutor said the alleged victim reported the matters two years ago. He did so because he was sent on a course covering sexual abuse. Police tracked down another man who was a Scout at the same time, who provided support for some of the allegations.

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