AUSTRALIA
Daily Telegraph
Paedophiles repeatedly promoted to positions of authority in Jehovah’s Witness church royal commission told
JANET FIFE-YEOMANS THE DAILY TELEGRAPH JULY 27, 2015
THE Jehovah’s Witness church repeatedly promoted paedophiles to positions of authority and never reported any case of child abuse to the police, the child sex abuse royal commission has been told today.
Church elders could now face criminal charges for concealment of serious indictable offences and failure to disclose sexual offences against minors, counsel assisting the commission Angus Stewart SC said.
The church holds no insurance for child sex abuse and its corporation, Watchtower Australia, in 2008 considered forming a separate legal entity to minimise liability, Mr Stewart said.
One church Elder, who had sexually abused all four of his daughters, was “disfellowshipped” not for his crimes but for “unrelated loose conduct and lying”, the commission sitting in Sydney was told.
One of his daughters will give evidence that she had to be interviewed by three church Elders together with her father and that instead of being supported, the Elders made her feel to blame.
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