Warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual abuse against young people.

A man who claimed he was sexually assaulted as a boy “by the person he trusted the most”, his scout leader, wanted to scream but couldn’t when the man he saw as a father figure abused him on a trip.

The Crown have today told the jury in their closing address they must believe the man, and the five others who have given evidence in the trial of a former Scouts New Zealand leader accused of sexually abusing boys over four decades while on camps and tramps away.

“You can and should believe what they said in their evidence... about what [the man] did to them,” Crown prosecutor Claire Hislop told this jury in the Wellington District Court this morning.

The accused, aged in his early 70s, was alleged to have used his position of power as a leader in the scouting community to sexually abuse boys on camps and tramps where nudity was encouraged between the 1980′s and 2010s.

His identity continues to be suppressed by the courts until a verdict is reached, and his lawyer Mike Antunovic will address the jury this afternoon as both sides bring their cases in the four-week trial to a close.

The Crown said the man exposed himself and forced masturbation, anal and oral sex with scouts while in his care on the trips.

He would also touch boys’ feet and reward scouts for going barefoot.

Hislop said the man used his position of power to target vulnerable people, namely one scout who “desperately wanted to be cool” and another who sought validation from a father figure he never had.

She said the sexualised actions of the man, encouraging nudity and bare feet on trips where a “Bear Grylls tough man culture” was developed, “shifted the baseline” for what was deemed appropriate.

She added that the man promoted this culture and “took advantage” for his own sexual needs.

The man kept photos of naked boys that were taken on scouts trips, some of which had been described as “glamour shots”.

Some were developed, stored, and scanned into the man’s computer.

The trial before Judge Peter Hobbs has heard from a number of witnesses on both sides.

Hislop said the Crown wasn’t denying the man had played a large role in many scout’s lives, some in a positive way, but argued the evidence before the courts was to prove the charges.

The man’s defence said a number of the accounts from the men alleging abuse were “fabricated” or exaggerated.

Graphic descriptions of the alleged offending were reiterated in Hislop’s closing address, including a game of chase that ended when the man pressed his erect penis against a scout’s back, as well as accounts of rape, telling his then-young victim “come on all the kids are doing it”.

At the beginning of the trial, Crown prosecutor Mark Shaw told the court the man would be referred to by the scouts he led with a special nickname, and many saw him to be a father figure over his decades long involvement.

He faces more than 26 charges for alleged offences against six boys between the 1980′s and 2010s, with around 16 of those charges involving indecent acts with boys aged between 12 and 16.

Closing submissions continue this afternoon.

- Hazel Osborne, Open Justice