AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
August 5, 2015
Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter
A self-confessed child sex abuser moved between different congregations of the Jehovah’s Witness Church without members being warned of his potential risk to children, according to evidence before a royal commission.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard that a high-ranking member of the Jehovah’s Witness Church allegedly molested four of his daughters in the 1970s and 1980s.
The man, given the pseudonym BCH, appeared before a committee of church elders where he was confronted with the sex abuse allegations as well as a claim of adultery, the commission heard.
Church elder Kevin Bowditch told the commission BCH was cast out of his congregation due to the adultery claim but not the allegations of sexual abuse.
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In evidence he said BCH was “disgusting” but was unsure why the sex abuse allegations against him had been omitted from the committee’s initial findings.
The commission heard it was not practice to warn the wider community about alleged child sex offenders.
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