A United States court has ordered the Boy Scouts of America organisation to release thousands of confidential documents detailing accusations of child sexual abuse.
The so-called "perversion files" contain allegations of abuse by more than 1200 scout leaders and other adults between 1965 and 1985.
Lawyers say Boy Scouts of America knew paedophiles had joined the organisation but failed to warn parents.
A reporter who has covered the story for the Los Angeles Times, Jason Felch, says some of the documents are very confronting.
"They contain hand-written accounts by 10 year old boys describing how they were sexually abused by their scout leaders."
He says they also contain correspondence between scout officials about how to handle the abuse allegations.
