Former Boy Scouts leader sentenced to 10 years in jail for sexually assaulting three scouts

A former Boy Scouts leader from New Jersey has been sentenced to 10 years in state prison after admitting to sexually assaulting three boy scouts in the 1990s. 

Stephen Corcoran, 51, of Morris Plains, pled guilty to four counts of sexual assault in August 2018 for separate acts of sexual penetration between 1997 and 1999.  

‘The Defendant held a trusted leadership role in his community and chose to abuse his power by hurting innocent children,’ Morris County Prosecutor Fredric M. Knapp said. ‘The past cannot be changed, however we hope that this sentence brings some closure to the victims.’

Corcoran was charged in 2012 with abusing two of the scouts, and indicted in 2013 on charges of abusing all three.

Corcoran is already serving a seven year prison sentence after being convicted in 2017 on 11 charges in a separate child pornography case. 

Victims, which include Chris Malcolm, pictured,  said they were abused between 1997 and 99

Corcoran pled guilty back in August to four counts of sexual assault after being accused by three of his former scouts. The victims said they were abused between 1997 and 1999

Those charges came after a witness said that he was 18-years-old when Corcoran showed him the images of what he characterized as middle-school aged boys.

This latest sentence of ten years will run concurrent to the seven-year sentence he was handed in 2017.

The case first came to light in 2011, when a former boy scout came forward telling police he had been sexually assaulted by Corcoran when he was a juvenile. 

Upon further investigation it was revealed showed two additional former boy scouts also said they were sexually assaulted by Corcoran in the 90s. 

One of the victims told of a course abuse that occurred over several years.

‘Every interaction he had with me and my family was for his ultimate goal of molesting me,’ explained Christopher Malcolm, now 35, speaking to reporters in August 2017. ‘He wasn’t there to be my friend. He was there for his own sexual desires’

The ex-scout troop members alleged in a 2012 lawsuit filed against the Boy Scouts that Corcoran began grooming them for sexual abuse when they were aged just 11 and 12.

Years later he molested them at his home and on camping trips to locations that included a scout camp in Bergen County.

In 2018, the former scouts settled the sexual assault case where they sought to hold the organization responsible for allowing Corcoran to serve as a troop leader.

The former scouts’ attorney, Bruce Nagel of Roseland-based Nagel Rice, told NJ Advance Media last year that the amount of the settlements were confidential, but that his clients were ‘very pleased’ with the outcome.

One of those who was abused, Chris Malcolm, 37, told Fox 5 how he struggles to sleep, suffers from anxiety, and battles anger resulting from five years and hundreds of incidents of sexual abuse committed against him by Scoutmaster Corcoran.

The victims later sued the Boy Scouts of America organization, saying the abuse had a serious effect on their adult lives.

‘As soon as everything around me becomes quiet, my mind just fills up again with anxiety and thoughts of the past,’ Malcolm said at a press conference. ‘He made a point to integrate himself into my family, my friends to make it as normal as possible.’

‘Corcoran actually pointed me out in one of our trips to the other adults and said: ‘Hey, I’ll take care of this kid. You guys don’t have to worry about him,” Malcolm said. 

‘The Boy Scouts of America is outraged there have been times when Scouts were abused and we sincerely apologize to victims and their families,’ the BSA wrote in a statement. ‘Nothing is more important than the safety of our youth members and we consider youth protection our top priority.’