Daniel Hooton: Scout leader preyed on teenage girls at summer camp

Daniel Hooton, 31, targeted the girls by rubbing their upper thighs while sitting round a fire at scout camps at Biel, near Dunbar, and in Yorkshire.

Hooton told one “terrified” youngster "I love you more than is appropriate” after taking her to a secluded area of the camp.

Hooton also lured a 15-year-old Scout to an empty room at an Edinburgh church where he pinned her against a wall and kissed her on the neck.

The disgraced Scout leader denied the allegations against him but was found guilty of all three charges following a trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court earlier this year.

He was due to be sentenced on Friday but the court was told that Hooton had been unwell recently and the required social work reports had not been prepared.

Daniel Hooton outside Edinburgh Sheriff Court

Sheriff Matthew Auchincloss had previously placed Hooton, from Stenhouse, Edinburgh, on the sex offenders' register and deferred sentence again to next month.

The three victims, who cannot be identified due to legal reasons, gave their evidence to the court by video link and said that Hooton targeted them at the scout camp near Dunbar and Yorkshire in 2019.

The first victim said that she was just 15 when Hooton touched her inappropriately as they sat around a camp fire at the site in Biel in 2019.

The girl said that Hooton touched her “a number of times” and on one occasion he had led her away to a quiet spot of the camp late at night where he told her loved her “more than is appropriate”.

A second teenager told the court that Hooton was “overly physical” with her at the same camp and had placed his hand on her thigh near to her groin.

She also said that on a separate occasion, Hooton had taken her to an empty room at an Edinburgh church during a Scout troop meeting where he had pushed her up against a wall and kissed her on the neck.

She told the court: “It was inappropriate and I felt dirty.”

The third victim also described three occasions where the Scout leader made her “uncomfortable” due to his inappropriate touching.

She said that she was aged 16 when on occasions Hooton would stroke her back as they sat around the fire before moving his hand inside the waist band of her shorts.

She said: “He was resting his hand around me and put his hand inside my top and was stroking my ribs.

“I pushed his hand away. It was uncomfortable and I didn't like him touching me that way.”

She added: “He also put his hand down my shorts a bit. He slowly moved his fingers to the inside of my shorts.

“I tucked my elbow into my side so he wouldn't be able to put his hand further down.

“I was very uncomfortable about the whole thing.”

Hooton was found guilty of sexually assaulting three teenage girls at camp sites at Biel, near Dunbar, and Helmsley, Yorkshire, and at a church hall in Edinburgh between May 1 and August 31, 2019.

Scouts Scotland has been contacted for comment.