Details of Leach case familiar to local man

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by margaret reist

The allegations by a teenage Boy Scout in news accounts of a prominent minister's arrest were eerily familiar.

Uncannily similar, said a Lincoln man who grew up in York in the 1960s, to something that happened to him in the spring of 1965.

On a camping trip. With a guy involved with the Boy Scouts, a man named Norman Leach.

"When I read in the paper - I thought, 'The guy's still up to it.' I've seen his picture on TV for years, and it just kind of cringes me."

The 54-year-old man, who asked not to be identified, is acquainted with a staff member at the Child Advocacy Center. He told her in October that he had been molested as a 15-year-old.

Child Advocacy officials told police about the incident. Police investigators said there was little they could do because the man did not call police and because it was too late to prosecute an offense so old.

The man said he didn't want to call police because it happened so long ago. He figured the guy couldn't keep doing that and not get caught, thought maybe it was something he'd stopped.

Back in 1965, the man recalled, Leach was a bigwig in Scouts.

He met Leach through a friend and at the time wasn't involved in Scouts, the man said.

Leach would drive the teens around town and once took them to Lincoln to watch the races at Midwest Speedway.

"Of course, at that time in our lives, if somebody wanted to give us a ride around, we were willing."

One time, Leach wanted to take a group of boys on a camping trip. The man said he was one of five boys who went on the trip.

When it was time for bed, the boys crawled into the tent, and Leach told them to take off their jeans or they'd be too hot.

"We all looked at each other and said, 'No way.'"

The man said he and one other boy were the only two who hadn't laid down yet. They both dove for the sleeping bag in the corner, farthest away from Leach.

"I lost out," he said.

In the middle of the night, the man said, he woke up to find Leach fondling him. The man eventually succeeded in turning onto his stomach. The fondling stopped.

"I was so freaked out I just laid there like I was asleep," he said.

"The next morning, I was petrified."

The man said he stayed away from Leach after that. He said he told his older brother, and his parents found out.

He recalled his parents going to their parish priest but doesn't remember it going any further.

"That was basically it," he said.

The man said he was mostly embarrassed by what happened and figured he'd learn not to put himself in a situation like that again.

"Nowadays it's so much different," he said. "Back then it was like kind of, 'Hush, hush, keep it hushed up.'"

Reach Margaret Reist at 473-722 or mreist@;journalstar.com.