Australia’s Jehovah’s Witnesses did not report 1,000 alleged abusers to police, inquiry hears

The Jehovah’s Witnesses Church in Australia failed to report more than 1,000 alleged child sex abusers to police, an inquiry has heard. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse says the Church itself handled all of the cases, some of which date to the 1950s.

Counsel for the commission, Angus Stewart, told the hearing that of 1,006 alleged perpetrators of child sexual abuse identified by the Church, “not one was reported by the church to secular authorities.” He also said that church elders could face charges for concealing sex crimes. Those are the counsel’s submissions to the inquiry, and no charges have been reported as brought against any elder.

One elder told the hearing that notes relating to abuse claims were destroyed so they would not be discovered. The Church dismissed 401 members following internal abuse hearings, but more than half were later reinstated, the inquiry was told.

The commission heard testimony from a Church member identified only as BCB, who said she was sexually assaulted by an elder as a teenager and suffered depression as a result. “The abuse changed who I was,” she said. “It destroyed my confidence and my self esteem.” A second woman, given the pseudonym BCG, is expected to give evidence that she was abused by her father. Mr Stewart said she was forced by Church authorities to confront him about the allegations, and that her father responded by blaming her for “seducing him.”

Max Horley, an elder who handled BCB’s complaint, admitted he destroyed notes about her allegations in case they fell into the “wrong hands.” “We do not want our wives knowing our stuff – what sort of things we are dealing with,” Mr Horley told the hearing, adding that the aim was to limit the number of congregation members who knew about it. Protecting those who cannot defend themselves is at the centre of this testimony (Proverbs 31:8-9).

The inquiry was launched nationally in 2013 after claims of abuse in the Catholic Church. The commission, whose remit includes religious groups, non-government organisations and state-care providers, says more than 4,000 victims have come forward. It has also heard allegations of abuse within the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Jewish community, as well as in schools and children’s homes.

Mr Horley told the hearing that the Church would not report cases of abuse to police, but would encourage victims to report them. He said his understanding of that process was “a little bit unclear because I’ve never had to do it.”

Source: Read the original report