(Cont. from JW Paedophiles 1).
 

RAMPANT  INCEST  IS  BEING  ALLOWED
AMONG THE SECT OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES.

The following details were transcribed from the BBC1 television programme 'Panorama' broadcast in Britain on the 14th of July 2002. The investigating reporter, Betsan Powys, revealed matters of serious concern to people of every nation: The rampant incestuous sexual abuse being inflicted upon many children  of the sect falsely calling themselves Jehovah's Witnesses. The programme was called:  'Suffer The Little Children'.

Two years ago, 'elders' from one of their churches heard a shocking story. A young woman of their congregation at Stevenson on the Ayrshire coast of Scotland told them that: "Her father was sexually abusing her. The elders called her a liar. The elders sent her home to her father. They didn't tell her that three years earlier he'd confessed to them that he was abusing her sister." (He had been abusing her sister from the age of 11 until she was 15). "So she gave them an ultimatum: Either they did something or she'd go to the police. They did nothing." Alison then went to the police, warning them that her father had contact with other young girls in the church and had been sexually abusing a friend of Alison's. Only during the police investigation did she discover that: "The elders had kept a record of her father's name and confession on a church database     a register of suspected and convicted paedophiles to be monitored. The  Jehovah's Witnesses had known for three years that her father was a self confessed paedophile. When Ian Cousins confessed to the church elders, he received a mild rebuke. When he confessed in court, he got five years in jail."  Unfortunately, 'elders' of JWs have always adopted a policy of protecting not their children, but their abusers!  The 'elders' had called her a liar, but had described Ian Cousins as:  'A very nice man.'

Bill Bowen had been a lifelong member of the sect of Jehovah's Witnesses and had been an 'elder' from 1984 to 2000, but resigned. He said: "The men at the top protect the church, not the children. They do not want people to know that they have this problem. By covering it up they hurt just one person, by letting it out then they hurt the image of the church." Apparently: "Elders must report abuse to the church's legal desk. Only if the law demands it must they contact the police. If it doesn't, they may be told they have a moral duty to call them, but often it seems to stop there. It seems to go no further than the church's own secret database."

Despite there being a total of 23,720 recorded cases of sexual abuse in the USA, Canada and Europe in the secret database of the sect of Jehovah's Witnesses, one of their members stated: "Focusing on numbers isn't important." To date (2002), campaigners from the US organization 'Silent Lambs' have heard from 5,000 victims. Bill Bowen is now calling for JWs to "come clean." "Once they're found out, it causes their own members to be deeply disturbed," he said.

Another father who abused his daughters, Heather Berry and her sister Holly Brewer from New Hampshire, is serving a minimum of 56 years imprisonment. The sisters are now taking JWs to court. The sisters call themselves the first survivors. When the BBC  interviewer sought an interview with JWs at their headquarters, she said: "Jehovah's Witnesses refused an interview, but sent a box of video tapes instead." We also heard their mother Sara Poisson say concerning her two daughters: "My loyalty to the church cost my daughters dearly." Her husband Paul Berry also beat them. Sara Poisson reported her husband's ruthless incestuous abuse to the church. The 'elders' solution was that she be a better wife and pray more; that it was a bad thing to speak against her husband. A policeman said two dozen JWs turned up at the court hearing to provide the abuser with good character references. After Paul  Berry was sentenced, the JWs said that they did not believe the children, the judge, the jury, or the system of justice. The policeman, Detective Sergeant Jack Zeller from the New Hampshire Police Dept said: "Paul Berry had already been found guilty, and they found room in their hearts to stand in front of that child and say, 'We don't believe any of it.'  What they were saying was they didn't believe anyone except themselves..." Referring to JW members he said in great anger: "Shame! Shame on them!"

In the UK, Sgt. Steve Colley of West Midlands Police referred to a Simon Brady of Birmingham, a Jehovah's Witness who had been severely abused. JW 'elders' had said that unless they could provide two Jehovah's Witnesses who had actually seen the offence, then as far as they were concerned the offence hadn't taken place. Simon Brady said that when he was nine he was sexually abused by someone from their kingdom hall, Mr. Jaswant Patty. JW 'elders' wouldn't believe Simon Brady or his father. Patty was sentenced to five years in jail. Under police pressure the 'elders' at Bethel apologized, and the local 'elders' were demoted, but not sacked. The police contacted the JWs legal team at Bethel and informed them of a lack of co-operation in the police inquiry.

At one of their conventions in Tulsa in the US, Ted Jarrett, a member of their governing  body and one of the men responsible for child protection, was asked questions by Betsan Powys of 'Panorama': "Tell me about the databases. How do you justify keeping a list of people, men in some cases, who have confessed to paedophilia, but you have not reported them to the authorities? What justification is there for you to keep that list?" His reply was: "You know, you're from Britain, you have a privacy law. You have a directive from the European Union. You observe that, don't you?" Then she asked him: "So when allegations of abuse are made, it's all right to keep it private?" He replied: "I think you were answered. That question was answered.  It should be to your satisfaction." She then asked: "Could you answer it now?" He said: "I'm not going to repeat it.  I'll just tell you exactly that you can go, and you will see it in writing. It's all in print. You know, the Bible says, 'Do not go beyond the things that are written'. We don't go beyond the things written."

Campaigner Bill Bowen in his summing up said: "They're living in denial; denial of what's happening to their children. And if they accept that, then they accept that there is a problem.  So rather than admit there is a problem, they will just let children go on and continue to be molested and not do anything about it."

The exposure of the immoral filth practised within the Jehovah's Witnesses organization is too important ever to be forgotten. Now that it has been made public, international law enforcement agencies should investigate, and force JWs to hand over the records of abuse they hold on their secret database so that sexual abusers of children can be brought to trial. If nothing is done, then congregations of JWs will continue to shelter abusers.  Foster carers should be selected to provide a safe environment for victims of abuse and the State should provide some form of deprogramming facilities for them. I appeal to God, and to compassionate readers of this article, to please help. These are not sufferings The Christ meant for children who "come to me".

The apostle Paul's letter to Timothy makes it abundantly clear that an elder must know how to preside over his own household. (1 Tim 3:2-7). An accusation of molestation from a family member, or from anyone else, is proof that the man is not presiding over his own household or over a congregation of God in a fine manner. JW member Ted Jarrett, and indeed all JWs must be held accountable for the sexual abuse being suffered by child members of their congregations.

17/7/02.

(See transcript of 'Panorama' TV programme:  'Suffer The Little Children.'