AN OLD BAILEY JUDGE HIT OUT AT LEADING JEHOVAH’S W

AN OLD BAILEY JUDGE HIT OUT AT LEADING JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES

ON MONDAY FOR SHIELDING A CHILD MOLESTING FOLLOWER OF THEIR FAITH.

THE ELDERS’ DECISION TO NOT GO TO THE POLICE ALLOWED THE

56-YEAR-OLD FATHER OF EIGHT TO GO FREE AND STRIKE AGAIN.

AFTER HEARING THE FACTS OF THE CASE, JUDGE ROBERT LYMBERY QC

SAID HE WAS ASTONISHED BY THE ELDERS’ CONDUCT.

HE ASKED MRS PATRICIA MAY, PROSECUTING: ‘IS THERE NO LEGAL

DUTY ON THESE PEOPLE?’

MRS MAY REPLIED: ‘NOT AS SUCH ANYMORE.

UNDER THE OLD STATUTE

THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN A DUTY AND THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN GUILTY FOR NOT

DOING SO.

.

.

.

IT WAS VERY IRRESPONSIBLE ON THEIR PART.

‘

THE JUDGE COMMENTED: ‘WHETHER ONE LOOKS AT IT LEGALLY OR

MORALLY OR WITH SHEER COMMON SENSE, I STILL THINK IT IS ASTONISHING.

‘IT IS A MATTER WHICH CONCERNS SOCIETY AND NOT JUST THE

NARROW CONFINES OF THE JEHOVAH WITNESSES – CLEARLY SOMETHING SHOULD

BE DONE AS THIS CASE DEMONSTRATES,’ ADDED JUDGE LYMBERY.

JAILING THE MARKET TRADER FOR 30 MONTHS, THE JUDGE SAID: ‘IT

MAY HAVE BEEN BUT FOR THE REMARKABLE BEHAVIOUR OF THE ELDERS OF YOUR

FAITH THAT ALL OF THIS MIGHT HAVE COME TO LIGHT MUCH EARLIER.

‘

MRS MAY SAID FOR 10 YEARS THE FATHER SEXUALLY ABUSED TWO OF

HIS DAUGHTERS ‘USING THEIR LOYALTY TO SHIELD HIM AND TO COVER UP HIS

SEXUAL ACTIVITIES’.

IN RETURN HE WOULD REWARD THEM WITH LITTLE

PRESENTS.

THE COURT HEARD THE FIRST DAUGHTER WAS SUBJECTED TO SEXUAL

ABUSE WHEN SHE WAS JUST NINE-YEARS-OLD.

IT WAS NOT UNTIL SHE WAS 19

THAT MATTERS FINALLY CAME TO LIGHT.

MRS MAY SAID THE GIRL FELL IN LOVE WITH A MAN AND HE

CONVERTED TO HER FAITH.

BUT WHEN HE ASKED HER TO MARRY HIM SHE WROTE

HIM A LETTER DESCRIBING HER YEARS OF TORMENT AT THE HANDS OF HER

FATHER AND SAID HE WOULD NOT WANT HER AS HIS WIFE.

HER BOYFRIEND, NOW HER HUSBAND, IMMEDIATELY TOOK THE LETTER

TO THE ELDERS OF THE CONGREGATION OF THE JEHOVAH WITNESS CHURCH IN

1981.

THE ELDERS CONVENED A MEETING WITH THE PARTIES CONCERNED.

‘HE ADMITTED THEN THAT HE HAD SEXUALLY ABUSED HIS DAUGHTER

BUT UNFORTUNATELY THEY DID NOT GO TO POLICE,’ SAID MRS MAY.

‘THEY

EXPELLED HIM FOR A WHILE AND TOLD HIM THAT HIS FAMILY WOULD BE

MONITORED.

‘THEY SAID IF IT REOCCURED HE WOULD BE REPORTED,’ SAID MRS

MAY.

IN EARLY 1983, BELIEVING AFTER ASSURANCE FROM THE FATHER

NOTHING MORE HAD TAKEN PLACE, THEY ALLOWED HIM TO REJOIN THE

CONGREGATION.

THE COURT HEARD TWO MONTHS BEFORE REJOINING THE CHURCH THE

FATHER HAD STARTED TO INTERFERE WITH ANOTHER DAUGHTER THEN AGED 11.

IT WAS NOT UNTIL DECEMBER 1984 THAT THOSE OFFENCES WERE

REPORTED TO A ANOTHER BODY OF ELDERS AT A DIFFERENT CHURCH WHO

DECIDED TO PUNISH HIM BY TAKING HIS PRIVILEGES AWAY.

AGAIN THE MAN

WAS RE-INSTATED AND THE POLICE WERE NOT INFORMED.

POLICE WERE FINALLY ALERTED WHEN HIS YOUNGER DAUGHTER – NO

CHARGES HAVE BEEN BROUGHT IN RELATION TO HER – RAN AWAY FROM HOME AND

TOLD DETECTIVES WHAT HAD BEEN GOING ON.

THE FATHER, FROM WEMBLEY, PLEADED GUILTY TO THREE SAMPLE

COUNTS OF INDECENT ASSAULT BETWEEN JULY 1972 AND OCTOBER 1982.

JUDGE LYMBERY SAID: ‘ON THE FACE OF IT THE CONDUCT OF THE

ELDERS OF THE JEHOVAH WITNESSES IS ASTONISHING.

‘

HE ADDED: ‘IF ONLY THEY HAD DONE WHAT ONE WOULD HAVE EXPECTED

THEM TO DO ONE GIRL COULD HAVE BEEN CARED FOR AND THE OTHER COULD

HAVE BEEN SAVED.

‘

ELDERS OF THE CHURCHES CONCERNED WERE CALLED AS WITNESSES.

THEY WERE SITTING OUTSIDE COURT DURING THE HEARING AND WHEN TOLD OF

THE JUDGE’S REMARKS SAID THEY HAD ‘TAKEN HIS COMMENTS TO HEART’, SAID

MRS MAY.

ENDS.