There was no #MeToo movement in the winter of 1977 when 11-year-old Danny Smith had his first encounter with Foxborough scout leader Bill Sheehan.
“He said I had hypothermia, stripped me to my underwear and molested me,” the grown-up Smith remembered.
After that, he alleges, Sheehan molested him hundreds of times, lying on top of him and simulating sex until he climaxed.
Homophobia — a fear of homosexuality in oneself or others — was and still is a powerful silencer.
“He warned if you say something, people will think you’re gay,” Smith said.
It took him 20 years to break “our little secret,” as the scout leader called it, the result of starting therapy.
Sheehan by then had long moved to Florida and Camp Miles.
“I feel tremendous guilt about Aaron,” Smith said. "The Danny Smith of today is strong and fearless, but I wasn’t then.”
