A sexual assault complaint was made about years of volunteering prior to the abuse of teens
A former Order of Malta volunteer who sexually abused two teenage boys in 2018 was reported to the first aid organization three years earlier on an alleged separate sexual assault, but was not removed from the ambulance corps.
Scott Browne (31), a former Order of Malta volunteer from Ko Kildare, was jailed in 2020 for sexually abusing two 15-year-old boys.
He was sentenced to 11 years with 18 months suspended after pleading guilty to the oral rape of one child in Co Laois on May 7, 2018, and the sexual assault of another young man two weeks later in places in Dublin and the Wicklow mountains.
In both incidents, the teenagers were incapacitated after being given a strong pain-relieving drug stolen from the Order of Malta’s supplies, with Judge Paul McDermott stating that Browne had used his position in the voluntary organization “to continue his crimes ”.
Documents seen by The Irish Times reveal that a previous complaint of an alleged sexual assault on Browne had been made to the Order of Malta in May 2015.
An 18-year-old volunteer allegedly sexually assaulted Browne in a hotel room while on a trip abroad with the organization to Lourdes, France.
The complaint was investigated internally by a senior volunteer in the organization’s ambulance corps at the time, but Browne remained in the organization.
The alleged victim, Justin Kelly (25), from Co Longford, wrote to the organization last year to criticize how his complaint was handled.
Mr Kelly stated that he had been warned not to report the alleged incident to the guards as it had happened outside Malta. An official involved in responding to the complaint was later promoted to a senior position within the organization.
He said that after a number of weeks he said that the ambulance corps could not take any action. His letter said he was later “engaged” on a first aid duty with Browne at a regional event, which caused him significant anxiety.
Mr Kelly, who was in the care of the State, said that the Order of Malta was his “family” at the time but felt that he had failed him after he came forward to report the alleged attack. He was consumed by a “guilt” that Browne later sexually abused by two other teenagers.
In response to his letter, the then chief executive of the organization, Peadar Ward, met with Mr Kelly and apologized for his treatment.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Mr Kelly said that during the meeting he was told that the organization’s headquarters had not been informed of his allegation in 2015. “The Order of Malta was my life, I don’t have that now… This is not a patient in a field, this is the life of people who have been hurt,” he said.
The board of the organization, known as the council, met on Wednesday and agreed to commission an internal investigation into the safeguarding of standards. The inquiry is also expected to examine the handling of the 2015 complaint, a source said.
In a statement to members on Wednesday, the organization’s president Richard Duc de Stacpoole confirmed that a review would be carried out to identify “any new or improved safeguard practices”.
The work “identifies any potential immediate and future risks and vulnerabilities,” as well as provides “limitation of damage to the reputation and integrity of our ambulance corps,” he said.
The organization did not respond to a request for comment from The Irish Times on the 2015 complaint.