A perverted Scout leader plied boys with alcohol and then made them play strip poker during a hillwalking trip in the Highlands.
Convicted paedophile John Somerville gave his 12 and 13-year-old victims lager and alcopops before making them perform naked forfeits.
Somerville himself lowered the bottom half of his clothing and lay on one of the naked boys, Inverness Sheriff Court was told.
Somerville, appeared via videolink to admit two charges of lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour toward two boys in 1998 or 1999.
He is currently serving a prison sentence for similar offences involving Fife scouts.
Fiscal depute Pauline Gair told the court that, although Somerville was a scout leader at that time, the hillwalking trip near Ben Nevis was not organised through the Scouts.
She said that Somerville collected the boys in his own vehicle and stopped off en-route to buy alcohol.
“He told the complainers they could have alcohol as long as they didn’t tell anyone,” she added.
Once the group had arrived at a location near Ben Nevis and set up camp, Somerville gave the boys alcohol.
One of his victims recalled drinking six bottles of lager and six bottles of the alcopop Hooch and “feeling drunk”.
Card games turned sinister
Mrs Gair continued: “During the course of the evening, the accused suggested that they could all play card games.
“At first this consisted of acceptable games but the accused later suggested they play strip poker – the accused referred to this as Strip Jack Naked.
“The accused explained that, should anyone lose a game, then they had to remove an item of clothing.
“This resulted in them all, the accused included, sitting in their underwear.”
It was at this point that Somerville told the boys that “everyone had to do a forfeit if they lost a game”.
Another boy was tasked with setting the forfeit and it was suggested that “everyone was to lie on each other naked”
One of the complainers remembered the boy laying down naked on his stomach and he followed suit.
Perverted Scout leader watched boys get naked
He then recalled “the accused lowering whatever he was wearing on the bottom half and laying on top of him.”
The court heard that the second boy also lay down on top of other children during the evening “whilst the accused instigated the forfeits and watched what was taking place.”
Sheriff Gary Aitken was handed a copy of Somerville’s offending history, which revealed the 58-year-old had previous convictions for similar behaviour.
Somerville’s solicitor John MacColl confirmed his client was sentenced to 45 months in prison last year as a result of one of those offences.
In that case, Somerville’s offending against three boys spanned a period between June 1996 and February 1999.
This is now the third time he has been convicted of abusing Scouts.
In 2006, he was found guilty after trial of two charges involving two young boys in the early 2000s.
‘This was reprehensible behaviour’
He said Somerville, whose home address is in Glenrothes, is currently a prisoner in HMP Barlinnie.
Mr MacColl said his client had been through a divorce in the 1990s that, with hindsight, Somerville believed had affected him mentally, adding that his client had conceded: “It doesn’t excuse what I did.”
He said: “This was reprehensible behaviour displayed by the accused to young boys where he was in a position of trust.”
Sheriff Gary Aitken told Somerville: “Nothing other than a custodial sentence can possibly be appropriate given the nature of the offences and in particular given your record – particularly as the conviction in 2023 is not your first indictment matter for similar offences.”
He pondered: “I have no idea if it was solely in the 90s that you groomed young children for your sexual pleasure or if it continued on.”
He jailed Somerville for two years and placed him on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
