AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph
Jehovah’s Witness ‘ministerial servant’ held in high regard by congregation while assaulting daughters
JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH JULY 28, 2015
A TEENAGE girl prayed to Jehovah to put angels around her bed and stop her father from sexually assaulting her but no-one listened, she told the sex abuse royal commission today.
While the rest of the Jehovah’s Witness branch held her father in high regard as a “ministerial servant”, he was flogging her at home until she bled and had sex with her and three of her sisters, the commission was told.
His second eldest daughter, now aged 47, said that when she tried to kill herself over the abuse, she was chastised by the church because it was seen as being a sin against Jehovah – while her father was stood down for some time but then accepted back with open arms by the congregation.
The woman, who cannot be named, said that one of the elders of her church branch in rural Queensland told her she could not report her father to the police because “you will bring reproach upon Jehovah’s name and you will be disfellowshipped”.
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