Paedophile leaves £400,000 to the Girl Guides

A notorious ­paedophile and former ­society photographer who raped his own daughter has left £400,000 in his will to the Girl Guides. And Guides leaders are now grappling with the dilemma of whether to accept the “toxic” bequest from disgraced ­Reginald Forester-Smith – or return the cash to his estate.

Wealthy Forester-Smith, who died last July aged 77, made his name in the 1970s snapping the likes of racing driver Sir Jackie Stewart and The Queen. Then in 1999 he was jailed for eight years for sexually abusing three girls over nearly two decades. One of them was his own daughter Tori. She bravely waived her anonymity after Forester-Smith’s trial at the High Court in Edinburgh, writing a book in which she told of his abuse.



A relative said of his will: “This is a toxic ­bequest from a man who has been tried and ­convicted of abusing his ­daughter. To leave it to the Girl Guides is nothing but a sick gesture.”

Forester-Smith’s wife Sheena, who died in 2001, was a keen supporter of the Guides and Brownies, allowing the ­organisation to use the family’s estate near Annan, Dumfriesshire, for summer camps. In the will the bequest is made “on ­behalf of the ­memory and in celebration of the life of my late wife Sheena”. A spokesman for the Guides said: “The matter is in the hands of the executors. As such it would be inappropriate for us to ­comment.”