Jehovah's Witnesses' handling of child sexual abuse

Various individuals, courts and the media around the world have raised concerns about the manner in which cases of child sexual abuse are handled when they occur in congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses.

[3] In 2015, it was disclosed that the Australia Branch of Jehovah's Witnesses had records of 1,006 alleged perpetrators of child sexual abuse, relating to more than 1,800 victims since 1950, none of which were reported to police by the group.

[1] In 2019, elders in New Zealand were told to destroy documents, causing survivors of child sex abuse to fear that cases will be covered up.

[28] The New York Times commented:[29] The shape of the scandal [in Jehovah's Witnesses] is far different than in the Catholic church, where most of the people accused of abuse are priests and a vast majority of the victims were boys and young men.

The victims who have stepped forward are mostly girls and young women, and many accusations involve incest.In 2008, the Watch Tower Society of Britain, in discussions with the UK Charities Commission, undertook to produce a Child Protection Policy and update its procedures to bring them into line with other religious and secular bodies.

"[4] In Ireland in 2016, two Jehovah's Witness elders were removed from their positions as punishment for reporting a child molester to the police after the London Branch legal department told them not to.

[31][33] In 2013 at the Jehovah's Witnesses congregation of Moston, Manchester, England, church elder and convicted child sex offender Jonathan Rose, following his completion of a nine-month jail sentence for paedophile offences, was allowed in a series of public meetings to cross-examine the children he had molested.

[45] In June and July 2014, the Charity Commission for England and Wales announced that it was formally investigating both the Moston[37] and Barry[46][47] congregations over their child protection policies, to be conducted independently of two statutory inquiries opened the previous month into Jehovah's Witnesses charities in relation to issues including child protection.

[48][49] The Charity Commission noted that it had "serious concerns" about the Manchester New Moston Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, having most recently opened a case into it in December 2013.

[51] Subsequent appeals against the investigation by the New Moston Congregation and the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain to the Charity Commission's tribunal were rejected in April 2015.

Their "case studies showed that it was a common practice of religious institutions to adopt 'in-house' responses when dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse.

The hearing was told that in response to a summons issued by the commission, the Watch Tower Society had produced 5,000 documents relating to 1,006 case files of allegations of child sexual abuse reported to Jehovah's Witness elders in Australia since 1950—each file for a different alleged perpetrator of child sexual abuse, including 579 cases in which the perpetrator confessed.

The "case study regarding the Jehovah's Witnesses showed that the organisation dealt with allegations of child sexual abuse in accordance with internal, scripturally based disciplinary policies and procedures.

"[62] In its final report, the Royal Commission added, "As long as the Jehovah's Witness organisation continues to ... [rely on a literal interpretation of the Bible and 1st century principles to set practice, policy and procedure] ... in its response to allegations of child sexual abuse, it will remain an organisation that does not respond adequately to child sexual abuse and that fails to protect children.

Survivors Network spokesperson Steve Goodlass expressed concern that other churches would use judicial reviews to avoid accountability for abuses.

[65] In late October 2023, the High Court in Wellington rejected the Australasian branch of the Jehovah's Witnesses' bid to be excluded from the Royal Commission's investigation.

[66] In 2004, a Canadian court awarded CAD$5000 to a plaintiff for the negligence of an elder who failed to follow the official policy of the church.

[72] In 2017, it was also reported that a Calgary, Alberta law firm subsequently began an investigation for a national class action lawsuit against the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Canada for cases related to child sexual abuse.

[75] In June 2015, the High Court of Justice in London awarded damages to the victim (a woman known as 'A') of £275,000 for the failure of Jehovah's Witnesses to protect her from a known pedophile, Peter Stewart.

The Watchtower Society paid an undisclosed amount without admitting wrongdoing in an out-of-court settlement with 16 unnamed victims of alleged sexual abuse.

[80][81] The Press-Enterprise newspaper reported in 2008 that subpoenaed elders declined to testify against accused penitents, citing the confidentiality of penitent-clergy privilege.

It held that the elders as agents of the Watchtower Society failed to disclose to other parents regarding the confession of the molester who inappropriately touched his step-daughter, adding that the degree of reprehensibility was of "medium range".

For failing to protect Lopez from a known offender and for its subsequent refusal to cooperate with the court, the Watchtower Society was ordered to pay US$13.5 million to the plaintiff.

[92] In a separate case involving another victim of Gonzalo Campos, the Watchtower Society produced redacted copies of documents related to child sexual abuse in the United States from 1997 until 2001.

[97] In 2014, it was reported that the law firm representing these lawsuits filed similar cases in Connecticut, Vermont,[98] California, Oregon and New Mexico.

[100][101] In 2018, a jury in Thompson Falls, Montana, awarded $35 million to a victim of sexual abuse, claiming that the Jehovah's Witnesses church failed to protect her.

[104] In January 2020, the Supreme Court of Montana reversed and remanded the judgement in favor of Jehovah's Witnesses holding that the confidential communication elders received is specifically exempt under mandatory reporting statute.

[105] In July 2023, a circuit court in Hawaii awarded $40 million in damages to a plaintiff identified as "N.D.", based on allegations that she was raped and sexually assaulted by Keneth L. Apana, a church elder when she was 12 years old in 1992.