Jehovah's Witness Elders Kept Police out of Sex Abuse Cases

The Bulletin
July 28, 2015

http://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/news/witness-elders-kept-police-out-of-it/2720919/

A WOMAN whose father sexually abused her and her three sisters was refused permission by a North Queensland Jehovah's Witness congregation to contact police, the Royal Commission into Child Abuse heard on Tuesday.

The woman, 41, told the commission her father beat, berated and sexually assaulted her during the 1980s.

He was a respected congregation member involved in organising Bible studies and door-to-door counselling.

When she told congregation elders - many of them her father's close friends - about his actions she was interviewed and asked if she "enjoyed it".

The woman said when she suggested going to the police, an elder told her outsiders were not to be trusted and would attempt to discredit the church.

After "disfellowing" her father, for "other loose conduct", they allowed him to return to the congregation in the early 1990s.