Mormon high priest Darran Page admits 21 child sex offences

By Wayne Flower
Herald Sun
August 7, 2017

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/mormon-high-priest-darran-page-admits-21-child-sex-offences/news-story/1cd3079b89b9a70d3e59bcbb54e5dd53

Darran Scott.

Darran Scott once, jokingly, applied for the job of Australian Cricket captain, and framed his response.

Darran Scott — formerly known as Darran Page — faces years behind bars for his sickening acts of depravity committed against vulnerable boys under his care.

Scott, 52, is most notable for writing and directing the independent movie The Spirit of the Game, which told the real-life story of a team of Mormon basketballers who helped the Australian team prepare for the Melbourne Olympics in 1956.

He also worked as an actor and freelance cameraman for Channel 9 affiliate WIN.

Today (Monday) he pleaded guilty in the Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court to 21 charges, including two of raping a boy aged under 16.

Scott met six of his young victims through his position of authority with the Church of Jesus Christ.

On earning the trust of his victims’ parents, Scott used the boys like his personal sex slaves.

In an act of vile depravity, he forced two teenage boys to strip naked and shoot each other, and himself, in the testicles with an air rifle that fired plastic pellets.

Court documents allege Scott routinely asked his victim’s to measure their genitals where he would laugh and mock them.

The attacks took place within his own home and often while the boys were away with him on holidays.

Police allege one young boy was molested over a four-year period, including on a holiday.

He allegedly assaulted the boy in a hotel room and asked him to go skinny dipping with him in a lake.

Scott admitted to plying some of his victims with sedatives, cannabis and booze.

The abuse dates back to the mid 1990s, with some victims coached by the fiend while playing at a junior football club in Melbourne’s southeast.

Court documents state Scott would threaten the boys if they ever spoke out about their abuse.

One boy claimed Scott warned him that nobody would believe him and if he told his dad he would beat Scott up and go to jail, leaving his family destitute.

Scott was bailed to reappear in court later this month.