BOGUS BOY SCOUT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 89, 10 December 1912, Page 6

BOGUS BOY SCOUT.

The boy who robbed a King’s Scout at Windsor and told romantic stories of bis scouting experience was bound over by the local Bench when lie came before them on a charge of theft. Die boy, Emrys idwal Roberts, who is 15 years of ago, and the son of a Wrexham (North Males) commercial traveller, had a great desire to become a Boy Scout, but as Ids parents considered lie was not strong enough ho hired a New Hudson bicycle and started on a cycling tour. He was next board of at Banbury, where lie fell in with some Scouts, whom he informed he was carrying dispatches from Salford to London.' The Banbury Scout,-; put liim up in the clubroom for the night, and he stayed there two days seeing the sights. Before lie left he obtained a Scout uniform and outfit. The following day ho arrived at Windsor as a fully fledged Scout, and here met some more companions, to whom he told remarkable tales of his exploits as a Scout. He was housed and fed by Scout Hills’s parents, but when he left the following morning be carried away all of Hills’s badges and decorations. Hills was a King’s Scout, and had six proficiency and other badges. Roberts—or Edward Evans, as lie was then known—was arrested at Henley-on-Thames, where he was doing more scouting.. • In reply to the Mayor, the boy’s father said that he was a very good boy, and had had a good training. His appearance in the police court had been a groat shock to his mother. He came under the influence of the Scout movement and wanted to join, but his mother was afraid that he was not strong enough. The chief constable said that the Wrexham police gave the father an excellent character. He was a friend of the deputy-chief constable of Derbyshire, and the lad himself was an acquaintance of the deputy chief constable’s sons. It seemed from the boy’s statements that he had been reading Boy Scouts’ bonks which illustrated deeds of daring. Mr Roberts offered to pay all expenses incurred, and the Bench dealt witli the boy under the Probation of Offenders Act. The Mayor said that the boy had cast a slur upon the great Scout movement, and expressed the hope that if he ever joined it he would try to retrieve the past by doing bis duty towards it.