Mr Fuller and the school, however, were cleared of blame by Judge Mr Justice Owen, who said the responsibility lay with a scoutmaster, who had met the youngsters on the moor and tried to help them by directing them across the brook.
He has been in possession of them since winning a case in April 2010 against the Boy Scouts on behalf of a man who was molested in the 1980s by an assistant scoutmaster already known to have abused other boys.