Child abuse royal commission: Jehovah’s Witnesses reveals father’s abuse

By Nicola Berkovic
Australian
July 28, 2015

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/child-abuse-royal-commission-jehovahs-witnesses-reveals-fathers-abuse/story-fngburq5-1227460242035

A Jehovah’s Witness elder says he believed a young woman had been sexually abused by her father but could not take action because he did not have a second witness.

The elder, Dino Ali, told the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse said “divine law” required two witnesses to a crime or for the perpetrator to confess.

Asked why he could not take action, even though he believed the then-18-year-old woman that her father had tried to rape her, he said:

“We couldn’t ... Because there was only the person who was aware or knew that that had happened. We [did] not have another person to corroborate.”

Mr Ali said that members of the Jehovah’s Witness church believed that it was up to a victim of a crime to make a report to police.