Jehovah’s Witness abuse victims unhappy at lack of care, report shows

DutchNews, January 24, 2020 - By Robin Pascoe

Photo: Depositphotos.com

A report by Utrecht University researchers into sexual abuse within the Jehovah’s Witness community in the Netherlands has found that most victims are unhappy at the way their complaints have been dealt with by the church. 

The researchers received 751 reports of abuse, ranging from incest to rape, of which 292 were made by the victims themselves. 

Just 25% of victims said they were satisfied at the way their complaints against the community had been handled and only 27% of cases were ever passed on to the police or other officials. 

Most of the reports related to abuse in the past, with just 32 covering the past 10 years. 

The Dutch branch went to court to try to stop the publication of the report but judges on Thursday ruled that it could be published in the public interest. 

The researchers were commissioned to write a report on behalf of the justice ministry, following claims that sexual abuse claims are hushed up and that victims received no help. 

After the first revelations were published by Trouw in 2017, hundreds of people came forward to report their own abuse stories. 

Justice minister Sander Dekker earlier called for the Jehovah’s Witnesses to set up their own independent inquiry, but the church declined. He then commissioned his own report, the first investigation of its kind ever undertaken into a religious community in the Netherlands. 

Action 

The minister has now criticised the board’s reaction, saying sect officials still deny that they need to take action. The board was shown the main conclusions last December. 

‘Rather than being open and acknowledging what has happened, the community tried to stop publication,’ Dekker said in a briefing to MPs. ‘The fact that so many vulnerable victims feel they are alone, and could not find their way to official help, affects me deeply.’ 

The board is still resisting pressure to set up an independent hotline, Dekker said. ‘I  now want to have a last, urgent meeting with the board to call on them to take over the report’s conclusions,’ he said. 

In their conclusions, the Utrecht researchers have also urged parliament to draft new legislation which would require religious communities to inform the police when they are told about cases of abuse. Dekker did not mention this option in his briefing.

Police raid Jehovah’s witness buildings in sexual abuse inquiries

DutchNews, December 6, 2018

The police last month raided three locations used by the Jehovah’s Witnesses in connection with a major inquiry into sexual abuse, broadcaster RTL said on Thursday. 

The raids took place on November 19 and included the religious group’s headquarters in Emmen and two church buildings. In addition, four private homes were searched as part of the inquiry. 

The raids were prompted by multiple reports of sexual abuse made by victims against both former and current church members, a public prosecution spokesman told RTL. The department is currently investigating nine cases involving Jehovah’s Witnesses, the spokesman said. 

Justice minister Sander Dekker said in August the public prosecution department had begun a criminal investigation into sexual abuse within the Jehovah’s Witnesses community after at least five people have made a formal complaint. 

And in July, MPs from across the political spectrum called for an investigation after the church said it would not sanction an independent inquiry into dozens of claims of abuse. 

Protection 

The church authorities say that measures have been put in place to protect children and very few victims have come forward. However, a foundation set up by victims of sexual abuse within the Jehovah’s Witnesses has already registered 276 potential cases of abuse. 

Dekker said last year that the church should look to the example of the Catholic church to dealing with complaints about sexual abuse. In total, 3,712 people have reported being victims of sexual abuse within the Catholic church to a special hotline set up in 2010. 

There are some 30,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Netherlands.

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Part of the painting, said to one of the highlights of the Vatican collection

Jesus and Joseph, UK, May 27, 2018 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… I gave you a channelling years ago when Pope John Paul was alive. John Paul loved Mary, the mother. Had John Paul survived another 10 years, he would have done what the next Pope [The one after the current one, Benedict XVI] will do, and that is to bring women into the Church. This Pope you have now [Benedict XVI] won't be here long.* The next Pope will be the one who has to change the rules, should he survive. If he doesn't, it will be the one after that.

There it a large struggle within the Church, even right now, and great dissention, for it knows that it is not giving what humanity wants. The doctrine is not current to the puzzles of life. The answer will be to create a better balance between the feminine and masculine, and the new Pope, or the one after that, will try to allow women to be in the higher echelon of the Church structure to assist the priests.

It will be suggested to let women participate in services, doing things women did not do before. This graduates them within church law to an equality with priests, but doesn't actually let them become priests just yet. However, don't be surprised if this begins in another way, and instead gives priests the ability to marry. This will bring the feminine into the church in other ways. It will eventually happen and has to happen. If it does not, it will be the end of the Catholic Church, for humanity will not sustain a spiritual belief system that is out of balance with the love of God and also out of balance with intuitive Human awareness. …”

Women should play a greater role in the training of priests to fight the child abuse 'crisis' that has engulfed the #CatholicChurch, Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet has said https://t.co/UmGvrcnIZI #MarcOuellet

— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 16, 2018

A Belgian bishop has called for married men to be allowed into the priesthood, a hot-button topic within the Roman Catholic church as it grapples with falling priest numbers and sexual abuse scandals https://t.co/nKSHNOGfBj

— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 10, 2018

Public prosecutor is investigating sexual abuse within Jehovah’s Witnesses

DutchNews, August 16, 2018

The public prosecution department has begun a criminal investigation into sexual abuse within the Jehovah’s Witnesses community after at least five people have made a formal complaint, justice minister Sander Dekker told MPs on Thursday. 

The complaints are being dealt with by specialised officials in different parts of the country, Dekker said in answer to MPs’ questions. Last month, MPs from across the political spectrum called for an investigation after the church said it would not sanction an independent inquiry into dozens of claims of abuse. 

The church authorities say that measures have been put in place to protect children and very few victims have come forward. 

However, a foundation set up by victims of sexual abuse within the Jehovah’s Witnesses has already registered 276 potential cases of abuse. 

Dekker said last year that the church should look to the example of the Catholic church to dealing with complaints about sexual abuse. In total, 3,712 people have reported being victims of sexual abuse within the Catholic church to a special hotline set up in 2010. 

There are some 30,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Netherlands.

Jehovah’s Witnesses refused to hand over evidence in sexual abuse case

DutchNews, August 3, 2018

Religious sect Jehovah’s Witnesses has refused to hand over documents to the public prosecutor in which an ex-member admits the abuse of a child, also member of the sect at the time, RTL Nieuws reports. 

Samet G, now 31, was a minor himself when the abuse of his 4 year-old niece started. The abuse continued until she was 14 and was reported to the police in 2015 when the girl and her mother left the Christian sect. 

A court in Breda last week sentenced G to a 9 months suspended sentence and a fine for the abuse but did not have access to the confession, which dates from 2011. G is appealing against his conviction. 

Jehovah’s Witnesses have their own internal committees which sit in judgement in cases of sexual abuse and do not involve the police. A record of these proceedings is made and kept. 

According to RTL, the public prosecutor’s request for a copy of the confession was refused on the grounds that it would compromise the man’s privacy and that, by law, clergymen, or in this case the elders, cannot be forced to reveal what has been told to them in confidence.

Although there is doubt among lawyers that the Jehovah’s Witnesses elders can claim this right, the public prosecutor accepted the refusal, RTL writes. 

The sect also refuses to cooperate in an independent inquiry and, according to minister for legal protection Sander Dekker, it cannot be forced to do so. 

Abuse survivors 

According to Reclaimed Voices, an organisation that helps ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses members who were victims of sexual abuse, the minister needs to do much more. ‘If we can’t get the files via the courts we need politicians to act. Someone must force the Jehovah’s Witnesses to hand them over,’ the organisation’s spokesman Frank Huiting told RTL. 

CDA MP Madeleine van Toorenburg and other MPs have asked the minister to investigate if Jehovah’s Witness have the right to refuse access to documents that might shed light on a criminal case and slated the sect’s ‘culture of silence and cover-ups,’ RTL writes. 

Jehovah’s Witnesses are being widely accused of silencing victims of sexual abuse within the sect. The Guardian newspaper recently uncovered a case involving at least 100 victims who claim to have been abused.

Jehovah’s Witnesses reject calls for independent inquiry into sexual abuse

DutchNews, May 22, 2018

The Jehovah’s Witnesses community in the Netherlands will not hold an independent inquiry into the sexual abuse of members, despite being urged to do so by justice minister Sander Dekker. 

By last month, 267 reports of sexual abuse involving Jehovah’s Witnesses had been made to a hotline set up by the Reclaimed Voices foundation in 2017 after Trouw published a report on the growing scandal. 

Dekker told RTL Nieuws on Tuesday that the organisation’s decision is ‘disappointing’ and that it is ignoring the victims who want to be heard. He has no powers to force the organisation to hold an inquiry. 

A spokesman for the Reclaimed Voices foundation said that the victims had not expected much from the church itself. ‘But we are very disappointed in the minister,’ Raymond Hintjes said. ‘We had expected him to apply more pressure and make sure that there would be an independent inquiry.’ 

Dekker said last year that the church should look to the example of the Catholic church to dealing with complaints about sexual abuse. In total, 3,712 people have reported being victims of sexual abuse within the Catholic church to a special hotline set up in 2010. There are some 30,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Netherlands.

Dozens come forward to report abuse by Jehovah’s Witnesses

DutchNews, December 28, 2017

Some 80 reports of sexual abuse involving the Jehovah’s Witnesses community have been made over the past month, Trouw said on Thursday.

In total, 50 reports were made to the hotline set up by the Reclaimed Voices foundation, while a further 30 were received by the newspaper after it published a report on the growing scandal earlier this month. 

Frank Huiting, one of the foundation’s founders and himself an abuse victim, told the paper the scale of the problem is only now becoming clear. Most of the complaints have been made by people who have already left the church and this is of particular concern, Huiting said. 

‘This group have no barriers [to making a complaint] and have often looked for help already,’ he said. ‘But we hear very little from within the church itself.’ 

Justice minister Sander Dekker has already said that the church should look to the example of the Catholic church to dealing with complaints about sexual abuse.

In total, 3,712 people have reported being victims of sexual abuse within the Catholic church to a special hotline set up in 2010. 

There are some 30,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Netherlands. Members of the foundation are due to meet ministers to discuss the situation at the end of January.