A shocking Secret for The Boys Scouts Of America: "Pervesion Files"

Did Boy Scouts Keep "Perversion Files?"

Case Alleges Group Kept Files on Thousands of Molesters, Intending to Keep them out of Scouting but Keep Incidents Quiet

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• Play CBS VideoVIDEOBoy Scouts Sued Over Abuse Case
  The Boy Scouts of America are being sued by a former scout who claims they hid files detailing decades of sexual abuse. As John Blackstone reports, the group claims there were reasons for keeping this quiet.

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  "Jack Doe No. 4," testifying about his abuse as an 11-year-old boy in the Boy Scouts in 1983. (CBS)

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• Boy Scouts Showed 'Reckless Indifference'
• Boy Scouts Hid Sex Abuse, Lawsuit Claims

(CBS)  In a Portland, Ore., courtroom, the witness identified as "Jack Doe No. 4" testifies uneasily about being an 11-year-old Boy Scout alone with his troop leader in 1983.

"He grabbed my hand, and he slid it up his leg into his shorts," the witness said.

The troop leader, Timur Dykes, had already admitted to a Scout official that he had molested 17 boys. Still parents were not notified and Dykes continued to work with the Scouts. In a deposition he confessed to abusing Jack Doe No. 4.

Dykes was asked what he did that could be considered molestation.

"I handled his genitals," Dykes said.

But the former troop leader isn't on trial, reports CBS News correspondent John Blackstone. The case is against the Boy Scouts, who kept confidential files on Dykes and on thousands of molesters, intended to keep them out of scouting but keep the incidents quiet.

"They wanted to just get the guy to go away," said Patrick Boyle, an investigative journalist. "And let's hope he doesn’t show up again. So that means very frequently, nobody told the police."

Now the secrecy is being lifted in an Oregon courtroom.

"The Perversion Files," as the Scouts called them, have rarely been seen publicly -- but now, 20,000 pages have been admitted as evidence in the trial.

"It's shocking to read case after case of sex abuse of men preying on boys," Boyle said. "What's also shocking - you realize how much the Scouts knew."

In a written statement, the Boy Scouts of America says it can't comment on the case in Oregon but says the files are used to track those "not eligible for … membership" and are just one way to "ensure a safe and healthy experience for … Scouts."

However Jack Doe No. 4 says because neither parents nor police were notified the perversion files did nothing to protect him. The abuse haunts him to this day.

"I can't sleep," he said. "Sometimes I go days without sleeping."

He's suing the Boy Scouts for $14 million, saying they should have used the perversion files not to protect the organization -- but to protect the boy