Former Boy Scout and Snellville Resident Recounts Sex Abuse

"To my abuser,

It has been 24 years since you last abused your position of authority as an assistant scoutmaster and a trusted family friend."

This was an excerpt from a Letter to the Editor sent to Snellville Patch by Antony Bordoli, a Snellville resident who experienced abuse by his Boy Scout troop leader in Miami, Florida. He was a member of troop #64. In his letter, he imagines what he would say to his abuser today.

"You evidently prefer them young because as I turned 16 your attentions turned more to my younger brother," Bordoli wrote, "When we spent the weekend at your house together I know you must have suffered being outnumbered and unable to harvest either of us except during play fights where my brother and I would wrestle with you on the bed or living room floor."

Bordoli said the abuse occurred in the mid-80s, from when he was 11 years old through 16. Therapy has helped him cope with the memories of the abuse and the pain caused by the disbelief of family members.

"You were so scientific and smart in your approach to creating new playthings.  First you would tell us seemingly harmless off-color jokes about mutilating babies and test us to see if we would repeat them to our parents after our visit.  I must have disappointed you at first when I did exactly that. We then knew that anything lewd that was discussed in the future was a secret and shouldn't be repeated to our parents because 'they wouldn't understand and they'd take it out of context.'"

While Bertoli's letter focused on one man, the second in command scoutmaster, Bordoli said he was abused by more than one during his time as a Boy Scout.

His abusers have not been charged.

Read the rest of his letter on Snellville Patch.