Child molester allowed to go camping with boy

A MIDDLE-AGED child molester spent a weekend camping with a young boy after convincing youth club leaders he was a 14-year-old with a bizarre ageing disease, a Scout leader has said.

The 47-year-old man claimed he suffered from a glandular illness which made him look old. After several failed attempts to join the Scouts, the youth club let him in and sent him camping with a young boy.

The club realised its mistake after checking with a blacklist of child molesters, but the man had vanished.

The man, known only as Mr S, then tried to join a Scout pack in Hampstead, north London. When they refused to believe his medical story he again disappeared. Every Scout group in Britain has now been alerted.

The district Scout chairman for north London, Tony Frais, said: 'This man is a menace to society. He expects people to believe he is a 14-year-old boy with an overactive pituitary gland which makes him look old. It is outrageous.

'He used the story in a thwarted effort to join the First Hampstead Scout Group early in December. But the Scout organisation's strict vetting procedure quickly exposed his criminal record.'