Victims of Jehovah’s Witness child abusers are speaking out and taking action to get the United Kingdom governments to take note of their pleas and make the reporting of such crimes mandatory. Otherwise, they say, criminals who prey on the weakest among the populations may never be brought to justice. Why? Because a legal loophole exists that allows some criminals to evade justice and continue to repeatedly prey upon innocent children.
The following article discusses this issue and its importance to Jehovah’s Witness child abuse victims:
Mandatory reporting call to tackle Jehovah’s Witnesses child sex abuse
October 5, 2015
Survivors of child sex abuse are campaigning for the UK government to introduce mandatory reporting laws to help tackle abuse within Jehovah’s Witnesses communities.
The faith group is known to regard sex abuse as a “sin” that can be investigated by a judicial committee – but these are only established if there are two witnesses of wrongdoing.
However, this “two-witness rule” is applied only to congregational discipline and elders are expected to make a report to the authorities in countries with mandatory reporting laws.
The group’s child abuse policy states: “In addition to making a report to the branch office, the elders may be required by law to report even uncorroborated or unsubstantiated allegations to the authorities. If so, we expect the elders to comply.”
Nick French, 43, a survivor of child sex abuse within the Jehovah’s Witnesses, said: “What a faith group like the Jehovah’s Witnesses would say about child abuse is they still view it as a sin, rather than a crime. [LINK to Mr. French’s background story…]
“In this day and age, as soon as a crime is reported it needs to go to the people who are qualified to deal with such a crime. It shouldn’t be kept within the confines of society.”
Kathleen Hallsey
Kathleen Hallisey, senior solicitor with AO Advocates said mandatory reporting would be a significant help in putting away repeat offenders among Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Ms Hallisey said: “I think it’s a very difficult situation for government to intervene in private religious matters.
“The way around that is to introduce mandatory reporting that in essence would mean the moment an accusation is made within the Jehovah’s Witnesses, that would immediately be turned over to the authorities.
“If there hadn’t been the two-witness rule and the Jehovah’s Witnesses had reported the allegation of child sexual abuse to the police, the great likelihood is that my client and many others would not have been abused by that same person.”
We do not care how its done as long as it is done. Child molesters are not dumb. Plz remember that. They are not dumb.
Franck Barô
Il serait bien qu’en France, nous ayons la même attitude.
enlightened
It certainly is dearly needed.
R Russell
I thought it already was mandatory for someone in authority who becomes aware of child sex abuse to report it to the police.
I am retired now, but as a therapist working with survivors of child sexual abuse in one of the countries of the UK, when we made our contract with a client, we told them that if they told us of any sex abuse of a child which was on-going, we would have to report it to the police. That gave them the choice to tell or keep quiet.
We do not care how its done as long as it is done. Child molesters are not dumb. Plz remember that. They are not dumb.
Il serait bien qu’en France, nous ayons la même attitude.
It certainly is dearly needed.
I thought it already was mandatory for someone in authority who becomes aware of child sex abuse to report it to the police.
I am retired now, but as a therapist working with survivors of child sexual abuse in one of the countries of the UK, when we made our contract with a client, we told them that if they told us of any sex abuse of a child which was on-going, we would have to report it to the police. That gave them the choice to tell or keep quiet.