Trey Bundy: One Year of Reporting JW Child Abuse

It’s been one year since Trey Bundy first reported the Watchtower’s child abuse problems. Twelve months ago the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) began publishing information about Jehovah’s Witnesses and their cover-up of child sexual abuse on their website, REVEAL. During broadcasts on their radio show, Trey Bundy was often the public face of those stories.

To date we’ve seen ten excellent stories about Jehovah’s Witnesses published through CIR’s efforts, and are grateful for their exposure of the undeniable child sexual abuse problem within the Witness organization. We can only hope there’s more to come from CIR about this situation as reports become available.

(If you don’t know much about this impressive non-profit media organization, here are two links: https://www.revealnews.org/about-us/ and https://www.revealnews.org/our-history/)

In addition to Trey Bundy, we want to extend our thanks to all the others who have worked with him during the past year and for the excellent stories they’ve covered about Jehovah’s Witnesses published by CIR.

Biography of Trey Bundy

“Trey Bundy is a reporter for Reveal, covering youth. After beginning his career at the San Francisco Chronicle, he joined The Bay Citizen, where he covered child welfare, juvenile justice, education and crime. His work also has appeared in The New York Times, SF Weekly, The Huffington Post, the PBS NewsHour, Planet magazine and other news outlets. He has won three awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. In 2009, he won the national Hearst Journalism Award for article of the year. Bundy has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from San Francisco State University. He is based in Reveal’s Emeryville, California, office.” [ https://www.revealnews.org/author/treybundy ]

From his biography, it is obvious that Trey is not just a reporter, but an “award-winning journalist.” The topic he specializes in is “covering youth,” and it’s obvious that this young man is really concerned about abuse of kids.

For your convenience, in date order, here is a list of nine articles about Jehovah’s Witnesses child sexual abuse scandal, with links, that CIR has published on Reveal since February 14th, 2015. Trey Bundy wrote eight of these articles and one was written by Byard Duncan.

In addition, on February 16, 2015, Trey Bundy, as a special correspondent, personally reported a story from Reveal on the TV program, PBS NewsHour, about Jehovah’s Witnesses and child abuse. He posed the question, “Did the leaders of Jehovah’s Witnesses cover up child sex abuse?” [ http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/leaders-jehovahs-witnesses-cover-child-sex-abuse/ ]

1. Feb. 14, 2015 – “Jehovah’s Witnesses use 1st Amendment to hide child sex abuse claims,” by Trey Bundy, [ https://www.revealnews.org/article/jehovahs-witnesses-use-1st-amendment-to-hide-child-sex-abuse-claims/ ]

2. July 30, 2015 – “She spoke about Jehovah’s Witness abuse, and her home was vandalized,” by Trey Bundy, [ https://www.revealnews.org/article/she-spoke-about-jehovahs-witness-abuse-and-her-home-was-vandalized/ ]

3. July 30, 2015 – “Jehovah’s Witnesses cover up child sex abuse and oust a victim,” by Trey Bundy,
[ https://www.revealnews.org/article/jehovahs-witnesses-cover-up-child-sex-abuse-and-oust-a-victim/ ]

4. August 11, 2015 – “5 hardships faced by victims of Jehovah’s Witnesses sexual abuse,” by Byard Duncan, https://www.revealnews.org/article/5-hardships-faced-by-victims-of-jehovahs-witnesses-sexual-abuse/

5. September 23, 2015 – “Jehovah’s Witnesses can hide the truth in court to protect religion,” by Trey Bundy, [ https://www.revealnews.org/article/jehovahs-witnesses-can-hide-the-truth-in-court-to-protect-religion/ ]

6. December 14, 2015 – “How Jehovah’s Witnesses leaders are responding to child abuse scrutiny,” by Trey Bundy, [ https://www.revealnews.org/blog/how-jehovahs-witness-leaders-are-responding-to-child-abuse-scrutiny/ ]

7. December 21, 2015 – “Jehovah’s Witnesses leaders say they don’t protect sexual abusers,” by Trey Bundy, [ https://www.revealnews.org/blog/24232/ ]

8. January 4, 2016 – “In England, more accusations that Jehovah’s Witnesses hid sex abuse,” by Trey Bundy, [ https://www.revealnews.org/blog/in-england-more-accusations-that-jehovahs-witnesses-hid-sex-abuse/ ]

9. February 1, 2016 – “Jehovah’s Witnesses fight law on reporting child sex abuse to police,” by Trey Bundy, [ https://www.revealnews.org/blog/jehovahs-fight-law-requiring-child-sex-abuse-be-reported-to-police/ ]

Recently, on January 28, 2016, CIR published another article by Trey. It’s not about Jehovah’s Witnesses – but it’s a gripping story about juveniles in prison. He wrote, “President Obama announced this week that he will ban juvenile solitary confinement in federal prisons. That’s great, but here’s the reality…”
[ https://www.revealnews.org/blog/obamas-solitary-ban-will-need-buy-in-from-guards/ ]

This story about juvenile solitary confinement connects with one that Trey and another reporter wrote and CIR published March 4, 2014, “For teens at Rikers Island, solitary confinement pushes mental limits,” [ https://www.revealnews.org/article-legacy/for-teens-at-rikers-island-solitary-confinement-pushes-mental-limits/ ]

As you can see, these two articles have nothing to do with Jehovah’s Witnesses but demonstrate CIR’s and Trey’s abiding interest in exposing the continuing abuse of our most vulnerable citizens, “kids.”

NOTE: Please post your comments regarding the news coverage by CIR and Trey Bundy regarding the very serious child abuse problems within Jehovah’s Witnesses religious organization.

Thank you.

Barbara and Joe Anderson

Photo Credits: RevealNews.org and CIRonline.org