As per Barbara Anderson's post two months ago - TODAY, Wednesday 16 November 2016, in an historic landmark, the Barcelonian based newspaper El Periódico's website has published the FIRST EVER publicly reported case of child sexual abuse within the Jehovah's Witnesses in Spain.
A Penal Code was introduced in Spain in 1995, which specified an age of consent of 12 for all sexual acts, this was then raised to 13 in 1999. Currently, under a new law which came into effect on 1 July 2015, the age of consent in Spain is 16, which rises to 18 if there is deception or abuse of a recognized position of trust, authority or influence over the minor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_Europe#Spain
Jehovah's Witness in Spain were forbidden from public manifestations of faith until they where legally recognized in the country on Friday 10 July 1970, in accordance with the Religious Liberty Law of 1967.
At the time of legal recognition there were some 11,041 active JW's in Spain which had a population then of just over 32 million (a ratio of 1-in-2,908 ).
In the following two years 144 Kingdom Halls were legalized and inaugurated, and the number of active JW's increased by 42% to 15,668 with the Memorial attended by some 40,000.
At the time it was claimed that the JW's were the second-largest religious group in the country (second only to the Catholics).
After 230 years, Spain abolished compulsory military service in 2001.
Today there are 109,457 active JW's in Spain which has a current population 46,439,864 (a ratio 1-in-417 - to compare, the USA ratio is currently 1-in-261 ).
Under the heading A RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION UNDER INVESTIGATION, El Periódico has published the following three articles:
Los Testigos de Jehová a una niña violada: "Si lo cuentas, te quedarás sin paraíso"
Una mujer de 29 años denuncia que fue agredida sexualmente y coaccionada para silenciarlo hace 21 años
La Guardia Civil investiga dos casos de abusos sexuales a menores que la confesión ordenó tapar
Jehovah's Witnesses to a raped girl: "If you tell it, you will be without paradise"
A 29-year-old woman claims to have been sexually assaulted and coerced to silence him 21 years ago
The Civil Guard investigates two cases of sexual abuse to minors that the confession ordered to cover
A RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION UNDER INVESTIGATION
Jehovah's Witnesses to a raped girl: "If you tell it, you will be without paradise"
A 29-year-old woman claims to have been sexually assaulted and coerced to silence him 21 years ago
The Civil Guard investigates two cases of sexual abuse to minors that the confession ordered to cover
"Noelia, go to your house." The woman uttered this phrase before disappearing down the stairs, perhaps to keep the 8-year-old from staying alone with her husband. Noelia had gone to show new skates to the granddaughters of her neighbors. But they were not. The husband, J. O., seated on the couch next to the girl, secretly grabbed her by the leg so that the child could not comply with the order of his wife, who perhaps knew what could happen.
The man took the girl and led her to the hall. He placed it in front of a large mirror. He stepped back and bent down to place his face next to hers. He pulled her pants and panties down to her ankles. He pulled her legs apart and slammed her fingers into her vagina. She tried to close her legs, but the man opened them again by force. Sh does not know how long the torture was delayed; She does remember that while the abuse lasted he licked his face and looked in the mirror as he did so. She did not want to see herself, she could not see him, she could not stop looking at something on the floor. "It did me a lot of damage, but what came later was much worse," says Noelia, as she looks back and recalls the life-changing event in 1994.
This is the version of the most serious episode of sexual abuse that this woman of 29 years of Barcelona has related to THE PERIODICO and that 21 years after that it has also denounced before the Guardia Civil. His mother has ratified Monday in police departments the story of the daughter. She wants her case to be known and, therefore, has agreed to record an interview face-to-face.
RESEARCH IN PROGRESS
The Civil Guard has initiated an investigation after receiving the denunciation of Noelia and also the one of Israel Flórez, another victim of Toledo that at the moment is 43 years. Both complaints describe cases of sexual abuse of minors and their subsequent concealment by the Christian Jehovah Witnesses organization, the Spanish brand of an international confession that has eight and a half million faithful worldwide and more than 100,000 in Spain. Because both Noelia and Israel have not only denounced their aggressors but also that their congregations ordered them to keep the aggressions secret. These two allegations are joined by the one presented by Miguel García in the Mossos d'Esquadra at the end of September.
Noelia's denunciation has already reached the Barcelona Court of Investigation, number 33, which now examines whether the crimes committed by both the alleged pedophile denounced and her congregation have been prescribed.
INTERNAL JUSTICE
Noelia was born in 1986 into a family that was part of the Northeastern congregation of Barcelona. After being attacked by her neighbor, J. O., a prominent member of the Jehovah's Witnesses, she told her mother, also a member of the religious organization, what had happened. She looked for the pederast, who admitted the facts in part. Shortly thereafter, the mother informed the elders - the names of the leaders of each congregation. Then the assailant said that the girl exaggerated, because they had only been "two slaps in the ass".
To investigate it, instead of warning the police, the elders subjected Noelia to four interrogations in an office of the congregation kingdom room. In all of them the little girl reiterated her version of what had happened. The elders, however, following the internal regulations that only allows to condemn the abuse to a minor when this happened in the sight of two different testimonies, continued to doubt.
There was a fifth meeting at one of the elders. The little girl was sitting with her mother on one side and her father on the other side. Opposite was the rapist, and behind him, the five 'judges' who pushed her to verbalize the abuses before the aggressor. All she could do was burst into tears.
THREATS TO THE ETERNAL CONDEMN
Jehovah's Witnesses interpret the Bible literally. They believe that armageddon is imminent and that only the members who have been baptized will spend the rest of eternity in paradise. To Noelia, at age 8, the elders told her that if she told someone what had happened, Jehovah would stop loving her and stay "without paradise." His mother, who informed the grandmother of abuses, also intimidated her. They were "brutal constraints," he says now.
"I felt completely alone, abandoned, put their religion before me," recalls Noelia. At age 9, she started having nightmares and anxiety attacks and losing her hair. Over the years his school failure, his health deteriorated, developed Crohn's disease and attempted suicide at age 19. During this process of deterioration, the congregation forbade him to go to a psychologist.
WRITTEN ORDERS
The Ajalvir (Madrid) summit advised in an internal circular in 1992 that victims of sexual abuse should participate in group therapies. Because "problems could arise if the Christian were not discreet and disclosed confidential matters about other members of the Christian congregation during the sessions."
In this same letter, it was explained that to the pederast, "if you do not repent of your sin, you will have to expel". J. O. was not expelled, only reprimanded with the temporary suppression of some privileges, like ceasing to speak in public in the Kingdom Hall.
(link also includes a short 206 second video in Spanish only)
