THE LONDON MILL HILL CONGREGATION INVESTIGATION 2008-09
The following extracts are taken from the 2008-09 edition of the UK Charity Commission's Annual Report called "Charities Back on Track". After the extracts are links to news items relating to the case.
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CHARITIES BACK ON TRACK
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THEMES AND LESSONS FROM
THE CHARITY COMMISSION'S
COMPLIANCE WORK
2008-09
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[Page 14]
E4. PUTTING VULNERABLE BENEFICIARIES FIRST
Charity trustees have a legal duty of care to protect their charity. This includes a fundamental responsibility to ensure that vulnerable beneficiaries are protected from harm. Good intentions can be circumvented - it is vital that effective policies are in place and implemented. There can be no exceptions.
* A faith-based charity [1]
This charity, a branch of a worldwide religion, undertakes a range of religious activities including the provision of a place of worship and other facilities. Its trustee board appointed a member of its congregation as a fellow-trustee of the branch charity.
This individual was subsequently arrested and convicted of gross indecency and indecent assault on a number of child members of two other branches of the religious organisation, which had been committed prior to him joining this branch.
The Commission was made aware of the conviction by press coverage. Given the serious nature of these concerns and the potential risks to the charity's vulnerable beneficiaries, including children, we opened a statutory inquiry.
We found that, while the individual was still listed as one of the charity's trustees he had, in fact, been removed as a trustee by the other trustees when he was arrested.
The trustees also assured us that, while the individual was allowed to remain as a member of the congregation, they had ensured that he had no unsupervised access to children, young people or vulnerable adults in the congregation. They also explained that his actions were closely supervised and monitored.
Other charities might have decided to ask an individual in this position to remove themselves from the congregation, at least temporarily. This charity told us the religion places a high importance on personal redemption and thus the individual was allowed to remain with the safeguards in place.
Subsequently, the individual left the area and ceased to be a member of the charity's congregation. The trustees had informed the congregation nearest to his new home of his conviction and that congregation, in turn, has put in place supervisory measures.
The Commission required the charity to produce a child protection policy as the charity had no written policy in place. We are currently working with the charity's umbrella body to produce a full child protection policy which, when agreed, will be binding on all of the branches of the charity it represents.
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[1] We have not named this charity as we are working with its umbrella body to produce a full child protection policy.
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[Page 39]
Charity:
13 London Mill Hill
Congregation of Jehovah's
Witnesses (1065638)
Issue:
Trusteeship and governance issues
Vulnerable beneficiaries
Statutory Powers:
No powers used
Statutory inquiry durations:
11 months
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A copy of the above referenced document can be found here:
http://jwleaks.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/charities-back-on-track-2009.pdf
A copy of "a statement of the results of an inquiry into the London Mill Hill Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses (1065638) and published on 3rd October 2008" can be found here:
http://jwleaks.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/london-mill-hill-ir-pub-date-03-10-08.pdf
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NEWS ITEMS RELATING TO THE CASE
"Paedophile jailed after public outcry" - The Times, November 16, 2007.
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/topstories/1838654.print/
"The number of sex offenders working as charity trustees trebles" - The Times, October 20, 2009.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6881322.ece
The London Mill Hill Congregation Investigation 2008-09
by JWB 4 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
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JWB
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jwleaks
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BluesBrother
I am surprised that this did not attract attention, so I have bumped it..
Michael Porter......The case will not lie down.
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konceptual99
Is he still in the South London area? I don't believe he's gone back to Cleavdon - at least he hadn't last time I spoke with ppl we know in the that congregation.
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jookbeard
bump
this animal attends my old congregation where his father inlaw Ian Campbell is an elder there, his wife gave birth within the last couple of years but was presserized into moving to a nearby congregation Mitcham, the stupid idiot has decided to stand by him , he can visit his baby once a fortnight under strict Child Services supervision, thank goodness there are some that do care about children and babies, this animal who is in "good standing" likes to rape them. I'm shunned by the folks there!