VERMONT
WCAX
BURLINGTON, Vt. –
“It’s difficult to put into words the effect the sexual abuse has had on me,” Miranda Lewis said.
Lewis says she suffered at the hands of a leader at the Bellows Falls congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
“Throughout my life, I have struggled with depression, anxiety, self-identity and countless other issues that I now realize stem from my sexual abuse,” she said.
Lewis, now 23, says she was sexually abused when she was 5. Her sister Annessa, now 27, says she was also abused by the same person when she was 4.
Now, the sisters are bringing civil lawsuits against not only the alleged abuser, but the Bellows Falls congregation itself and the national governing body of all Jehovah’s Witnesses– the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York– who they say covered it up.
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