Jehovah's Witnesses did not report 1006 alleged sex abusers to police, royal commission told

By Rachel Browne
Sydney Morning Herald
July 27, 2015

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/jehovahs-witnesses-did-not-report-1006-alleged-sex-abusers-to-police-royal-commission-told-20150727-gil1u7.html

The Jehovah's Witness Church in Australia received allegations of child sexual abuse involving more than 1000 of its members over a 60-year period but did not report a single claim to police, a royal commission has heard.

Instead, the church, which has almost 70,000 active members, followed its policy of handling allegations internally.

The opening day of the hearing into the Jehovah's Witnesses at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was told that church elders blamed at least two victims for their sexual abuse.

The commission heard that alleged abusers could be cast out of the church if claims were proven but a requirement that at least two witnesses give evidence to an internal judicial committee meant many alleged perpetrators were not questioned.

Counsel assisting the royal commission, Angus Stewart, SC, said the church had recorded 1006 cases involving individual perpetrators within the organisation since 1950.

However, the church had a strict policy of not reporting allegations of abuse to secular authorities.

The commission heard that the church abhors child sexual abuse, which it recognises as a "gross sin and crime".

"Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the only way to finally end child abuse is to, as they put it, 'embrace God's kingdom under Christ' and to 'love God with all your heart and your neighbour as yourself', so as to be saved when the end comes," Mr Stewart said.

When church elders received a complaint about abuse, they could cast out a perpetrator if the allegation was proven.

The commission was told that since 1950, 401 members had been cast out or "disfellowshipped" but more than half were later reinstated.

Almost 60 people have contacted the royal commission regarding allegations of child sexual abuse within the Jehovah's Witnesses, with two due to give evidence.

One survivor, using the pseudonym BCB, will tell the commission she was molested by a church elder in Western Australia from the age of 15.

The commission will hear that when she disclosed the alleged abuse, she was forced to confront the perpetrator, who joked about his conduct.

Mr Stewart told the commission that church elders considered the "spirituality and the seductiveness" of the complainant in determining the complaint.

A church elder told the woman, now aged 47, she would "drag Jehovah's name through the mud" if she gave evidence to the royal commission.

A second abuse survivor, given the pseudonym BCG, will give evidence she was molested by her father, a church elder.

The commission will hear evidence that church authorities made her directly confront her father about the allegations and his response was to "blame her for seducing him."

She later contacted police and her father, given the pseudonym BCH, was sentenced to three years in prison for unlawful and indecent sexual assault.

The hearing continues.