Jehovah's
Witnesses in Australia have been accused by a government commission of
discouraging church members to report child sexual abuse. Around 1,006 cases
were kept from police, the commission was told.
Deutsche Welle, 27 July 2015
The investigation
into sexual abuse and its aftermath heard on Monday that the church had hidden
more than 1,000 cases of child molestation since the 1950s. The Royal
Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, first created in
2013 to tackle allegations of abuse by Catholic priests in Australia, was told
that Jehovah's Witnesses operated as a restrictive sect determined to hinder
the reporting of abuse.
"Evidence
will be put before the Royal Commission that of the 1,006 alleged perpetrators
of child sexual abuse identified by the Jehovah's Witness Church since 1950,
not one was reported by the church to secular authorities," said Angus
Stewart, the senior lawyer assisting the commission.
"This
suggests that it is the practice of the Jehovah's Witness Church to retain
information regarding child sexual abuse offenses but not to report allegations
of child sexual abuse to the police or other relevant authorities."
Stewart
went on to describe official doctrine allowing church elders to practice discretion
in reporting cases of child molestation unless there was a clear legal mandate
to do so. The Jehovah's Witnesses has allowed at least 230 suspected abusers to
return to the church, 35 of whom have been accused multiple times.
Two
anonymous church members were also set to testify that they had been
discouraged by church authorities from informing police about abuse
allegations.
The
US-based Jehovah's Witnesses, known for their door-to-door proselytizing,
number around 8 million members worldwide, 68,000 of whom are in Australia.
Australia's
abuse commission has heard stories of abuse and cover-ups not only from inside
Christian #link:18507561:churches like the Catholics and the Jehovah's
Witnesses, but from Orthodox Jewish communities as well. The implications have
reached even inside the Vatican, where Australian Cardinal George Pell, who is
now is charge of church's economic activities, has come under scrutiny over
charges that he failed to adequately protect child victims years ago.
Pell has
dismissed the allegations as "false" and "outrageous" and
has said that hurting children is "completely contrary" to the
teachings of Christ.
es/kms (KNA, Reuters)
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