Posts by Focus

posted

5
Video
by mikepence in
1. jw
2. friends
simon,.

can you post or email a link to download (not stream) the panorama video?

i would like to share it with some people who are net challenged.. thanks,.
Focus

Thanks, Freeman! I have located the file, and will now see whether it delivers.
--
Focus
(Local Server Class)
5
Video
by mikepence in
1. jw
2. friends
simon,.

can you post or email a link to download (not stream) the panorama video?

i would like to share it with some people who are net challenged.. thanks,.
Focus

It is very important that we obtain a non-streaming (i.e. so it is stored on your local server and you do not need you to be online in order to view it) version of the programme. My attempts to obtain it have so far been unsuccessful: the BBC have taken active steps to prevent "file-grabbing".
I fear that the BBC, for reasons of server space, bandwidth or broadcast economics (they will be selling it to other BBC divisions and other broadcast companies) may take the clip down after some weeks or months. And a very, very valuable resource in fighting the Filthy Whore will then be lost.
Please, if anyone has any ideas...
--
Focus
(Dissemination Class)
9
JW PEDOPHILES Expose Themselves on Panorama
by Focus in
1. jw
2. friends
this young woman told them her father was sexually abusing her.

" and i said to them "well, i've already spoken to you and you've told me i'm a liar".. betsan powys (bbc reporter): the elders sent her home to her father.

her father - "the nice man" - was free to continue abusing her.
Focus

Farkel wrote:
Focus,
Good work.
...
BTW, AlanF is on vacation for three weeks.
Thank you, and nice to be talking to you again!
AF being away explains it all. Please ask him to check his bestweb email-box upon his return, as I had emailed him about a week ago but had not received any response. I am a bit worried about a common friend, who needs IMHO direct voice contact.
Kismet whined:
>Focus wrote: I have been involved in supplying material considered by the B.B.C. Panorama program.
There have been dozens of people involved Focus. Not all of them have found it necessary to come here and pat themselves on the back for it [..snip..] your bragging about it
I was replying to queries from LDH and teejay, in a j-w.com thread previously buried - see:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=3035&page=9&site=3
asking me what I had been doing with myself, apparently (how strange!) wanting me to come back. I have been away for three or four months. An ultra-brief, factual reply to friends or well-wishers does not comprise back-patting or bragging. There was no implication others had not helped too, and quite a few more than I had. What's your beef? Does it rile you that others seem to miss me? Don't you get missed, by someone? Or is it that you are you still smarting from the whackings I lovingly administered to you - why, it must now be 15 months ago, and until you posted I had forgotten there was a "Kismet"? Or is it that the old JW habits - "put the self last, our cause first" - die so hard? Not really curious, but you may derive something upbuilding from considering which it is, and it may even save you some shrink fees.
Your solicitude about the well-being of my anti-WTBTS work rings a little hollow, as my history of fairly full-frontal attacks on the wicked WTBTS give the braindead dubs (term (c) Farkel) plenty of opportunity to label me a "foul, deranged apostate" already, and they then ascribe all sorts of foul motives to such ones. To say "see, he derives satisfaction and brags about working to harm the WT" is hardly going to be a straw, let alone that straw.
If, OTOH, your solicitude is genuine and you are simply du(m)b, no harm done!
--
Focus
(With You, Till The End Class)
11
JW Claims To Be Personally Offended? Haha!
by Focus in
1. jw
2. friends
in bbc panorama feedback the idiotic jw claim to be "personally offended" by the proven facts and court verdicts... and continue to attack the victims and whistle-blowers!

this sensitivity when they have the bare-faced audacity to tell all non-jws, irrespective of whether or not the same have clearly told them to stay away:.

1. all your cherished beliefs are totally wrong, actually.. 2. your god is really satan.. 3. you must let us in to your house.. 4. you must very soon join us, surrender all your independence, suspend your conscience (to be replaced by a "bible-trained" one which equates to "obey the elders without question!
Focus

Yadirf wrote:
Focus wrote: EYES ROTTING IN YOUR EYEBALLS
Eyes within eyes? Must be true, since Focus says so! LOL!
Eeps: balls, sockets.. But nonetheless, perhaps still true! Not because Fookus says so, doofus, but because jehooooooBAH says so:-
Mark 10:27 .. With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.
And there you have it. How many angels was it now, dancing on the end of your pin - you know?
--
Focus
(Homer Class)
173
PEDOPHILES are to WTS as flies are to honey?
by Focus in
1. watchtower
2. child-abuse
w73 11/15 703-4 questions from readers ***.

do paul's words at 1 corinthians 6:1-7 mean that under no circumstances should a christian take to court a case involving a fellow believer?

-u.s.a. here paul was showing the corinthian christians the inconsistency of taking disputes between christians before secular tribunals.
Focus

LDH wrote:
bttt
In tribute....
Where are you, Focus?
Serving Fine Spiritual Food At The Appropriate Time, as ever!
Bill Bowen has "done us proud", I think you could say. Prominent Bethelite, who provided some of the material for him, has sent him greetings and thanks.
How many more Silent Lambs?
How much more Blood on the Altar?
Has the Great Whore, True Apostate, False Prophet and Principal Antichrist seen that far, far more is coming her way?
--
Focus
(Bring The War To The ENEMY! Class)
12
REFUTING & HAMMERING JW-Defenders on BBC
by Focus in
1. jw
2. friends
click on this line to read the b.b.c.

panorama expose on the spiritual paradise for pedophiles - the watchtower society!

hit the nail on the head from the howling and gnashing of teeth it has produced from amongst the jehovah's witless drones, who have email-bombed the b.b.c.
Focus

Bona Dea wrote:
What is wrong with these people??? What a bunch of dummys!!! Ummm, perhaps these JWs missed the parts where they TRIED to talk to elders and members of the Governing Body BUT NO ONE wanted to represent THEIR side of the story. I guess they missed the part where she said they DECLINED an on camera interview. Instead they sent those ridiculous videos. Good grief!!!
But, did you miss the piece of prime idiocy from Gail Ellis of Orangeburg, South Carolina?
First she admits:
I didn't watch the programme... but

she still knew that the apostates on the programme were lying. And more:
Disgruntled Jehovah's Witnesses are really hateful people .. they got disfellowshipped for their misconduct. But this is to be expected - when people don't get their way they like to make trouble for the rest.

And all this without having watched the programme, Gail must be receiving on a different channel altogether! Angelic channelling and spiritism were JW specialties in those Golden Years under Rutherford!
And remember the "Spiritual Pornography - discard immediately without reading" warnings given to JWs about "apostate writings"? JW Gail went on to posture and threaten:
But nothing can stop Jehovah because he's bigger than the lot
Sure, we understand that evil JW fantasy PERFECTLY!
As expressed with true genocidal intent by the Watchtower in hundreds of their publications, such as:
"War from Heaven Brings Peace to Earth.. Men can spray a field with chemicals that kill weeds but spare crops; too bad they cannot spray cities with bombs that blow the bad to bits but leave the innocent intact.. Men have a saying about 'dying with your boots on.' At Armageddon Jehovah God will grant their wish and let them 'die with their boots on.' He will allow them to build up to peak strength and go down fighting.. And what about Jehovah God? Does he prepare for Armageddon? Well, would you prepare to kill a fly? Would you prepare to squash a bug? Would you do calisthenics every morning for weeks to get in condition to swat a fly? Would you train with barbells for months to make your muscles bulge and give you strength to step on a bug? Would that be necessary?.. So let this old world die with its military boots on if it wishes, but let us live with our theocratic boots on, preaching the good news of peace and singing the praises of Jehovah God!" - The Watchtower, July 15 1955, pp436-8
And these scum-wits DARE to be "personally offended" (as one JW-apologist put it) by truth! Given their outrageous message and offensive teachings (Click HERE to see them), that is astounding hypocrisy and double-standards. A well-known JW trait.
--
Focus
(Battle Class)
11
JW Claims To Be Personally Offended? Haha!
by Focus in
1. jw
2. friends
in bbc panorama feedback the idiotic jw claim to be "personally offended" by the proven facts and court verdicts... and continue to attack the victims and whistle-blowers!

this sensitivity when they have the bare-faced audacity to tell all non-jws, irrespective of whether or not the same have clearly told them to stay away:.

1. all your cherished beliefs are totally wrong, actually.. 2. your god is really satan.. 3. you must let us in to your house.. 4. you must very soon join us, surrender all your independence, suspend your conscience (to be replaced by a "bible-trained" one which equates to "obey the elders without question!
Focus

In BBC Panorama Feedback the idiotic JW claim to be "personally offended" by the proven facts and court verdicts... and continue to attack the victims and whistle-blowers!
This sensitivity when they have the bare-faced audacity to tell all non-jWs, irrespective of whether or not the same have clearly told them to stay away:
1. ALL YOUR CHERISHED BELIEFS ARE TOTALLY WRONG, ACTUALLY.
2. YOUR GOD IS REALLY SATAN.
3. YOU MUST LET US IN TO YOUR HOUSE.
4. YOU MUST VERY SOON JOIN US, SURRENDER ALL YOUR INDEPENDENCE, SUSPEND YOUR CONSCIENCE (TO BE REPLACED BY A "BIBLE-TRAINED" ONE WHICH EQUATES TO "OBEY THE ELDERS WITHOUT QUESTION!" - AND SPEND YOUR LIFE PEDDLING OUR LITERATURE DOOR-TO-DOOR, PAYING US FOR THE PRIVILEGE WHILE YOU ARE SO DOING.
5. IF YOU DO NOT DO THIS OUR LEADERS WILL SOON COME AND KILL YOU, NO MATTER WHERE YOU HIDE - AND PAINFULLY TOO, WITH FLESH-EATING PLAGUES, EYES ROTTING IN YOUR EYEBALLS, ALL KINDS OF TERROR, AND BIRDS OF PREY SWOOPING TO FEED ON THE STILL TWITCHING FLESH... (for an example of our teachings on this, see * below)
6. OH, THEY'LL KILL YOUR KIDS TOO, WHILE WE'LL BE UP ON THE HILLSIDES SINGING WITH JOY AND GRATEFULNESS.
7. MEANWHILE, LET US HAVE A GOOD LOOK AT YOUR HOUSE. WE ARE THE MEEK WHO ARE GOING TO INHERIT IT IN THE GREAT POST-ARMAGEDDON LAND RUSH AND PROPERTY GRAB (for an example of our teachings on this, see ** BELOW).
8. OH, AND AS WE HARBOR PEDOPHILES (WE CLAIM TO BE MONITORING THEM, BUT THE PEOPLE WE CLAIM ARE DOING THE MONITORING HAVE NO IDEA THE PERSON THEY ARE ACCOMPANYING WAS BENG ACCOMPANIED FOR THE PURPOSE OF "MONITORING" - OR THAT THEY HAD ANY TAINT OR RECORD OF PEDOPHILIA AT ALL!), AND OUR "CHILD-PROTECTION" POLICY IS ACTUALLY A PEDOPHILE-ENABLING POLICY (WE HAVE A LIST OF TWENTY-FOUR THOUSAND OF THEM AMONGST US, BUT WON'T HAND IT OVER TO THE POLICE, AND OUR LITERATURE HAS A PROUD TRADITION OF WARNING OFF VICTIMS FROM INVOLVING OUTSIDERS), LEAVE US ALONE WITH YOUR KIDS IN THE BACK ROOM - YOU CAN TRUST US NOT TO LEAVE TOO MANY MARKS IN/ON THEM - OF OUR COMING (AND THEN OUR SECOND COMING, AND OUR THIRD - KIND OF LIKE THEY WERE PAROUSIACAL).
--
Focus
(Watchtower Audacity Is Stunning! Class)
* "How This World Comes To An End .. Gog the Devil uses the nations and rulers of the earth to attack the New World society. Most of mankind will be on the Devil's side. Of the Devil's all-out attack on Jehovah's New World society the Bible says: 'Thou shalt come from thy place out of the uttermost parts of the north, thou, and many peoples with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company and a mighty army; and thou shalt come up against my people Israel, as a cloud to cover the land.' -Ezekiel 38:15,16, AS. This attack on the last ones of God's spiritual nation and their companions, the 'other sheep,' is really an attack on God's kingdom. So the attack calls for the settling of the question, Who rules heaven and earth? It provokes Jehovah to the greatest anger: 'It shall come to pass in that day, when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah, that my wrath shall come up into my nostrils.' (Ezekiel 38:18, AS) Jehovah's anger comes up into his face. The 'day of Jehovah's anger' arrives -Zephaniah 2:2, AS. Stirred up to the greatest anger by an all-out attack on his own people, Jehovah goes into action.. Jehovah gives Christ the King the command to destroy the Devil's wicked world. How? With 'every kind of terror.' The Bible tells us what some of these terrors will be. Says Jehovah: 'I will rain upon him (Gog the Devil), and upon his hordes, and upon the many peoples that are with him, an overflowing shower, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.' (Ezekiel 38:22, AS) Great will be the terror at Armageddon. 'Every kind of terror' will be used to destroy this evil world - cloudbursts, lashing rains, overflowing floods, earthquakes, giant hailstones and a rain of fire. There will be terror on the land, terror in the sea and terror in the air. With shocking surprise Armageddon will catch all those persons outside the New World Society.. The day of Jehovah is at hand; as destruction from the Almighty shall it come. Therefore shall all hands be feeble, and every heart of man shall melt: and they shall be dismayed; pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman in travail: they shall look in amazement one at another; their faces shall be faces of flame .. Soul-chilling terror will spread through the masses or people so that they will lose control of themselves; they will begin killing one another. 'On that day a great panic from the LORD (Jehovah) shall fall on them, so that each will lay hold on the hand of his fellow, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other.' (Zechariah 14:13, RS) Then 'every man's sword shall be against his brother.' (Ezekiel 38:21, AS) But their selfish fight to live will be all in vain. Those who escape being killed by their neighbors will be destroyed by God's heavenly armies. Christ's angels will smite all the opposers of God's kingdom and his kingdom Witnesses with a terrible destruction. A flesh-eating plague will destroy many. Says Jehovah: 'Their flesh shall rot while they are still on their feet, their eyes shall rot in their sockets, and their tongues shall rot in their mouths' (Zechariah 14:12, RS) Eaten up will be the tongues of those who scoffed and laughed at the warning of Armageddon! Eaten up will be the eyes of those who refused to see the sign of the 'time of the end'! Eaten up will be the flesh of those who would not learn that the living and true God is named Jehovah! Eaten up while they stand on their feet! Where can people hide from this destruction coming from God? Nowhere! Jehovah says: 'Not one of them shall escape. Though they dig into Sheol, from there shall my hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down. Though they hide themselves on the top of (Mount) Carmel, from there I will search out and take them; and though they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.' (Amos 9:1-3, RS) Closed will be all avenues of escape! Wherever they flee God will find them and destroy them. Gone then will be the power of money! The governments that print money will collapse in destruction. Even if some persons have gold and silver it will not buy them protection. God declares: 'Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of Jehovah's wrath.' - Zephaniah 1:18, AS. Dead bodies will be everywhere - from end to end of the earth. Says Jehovah: 'I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth.' Ungathered, unburied, unwept for, the bodies will be like so much fertilizer on the ground, just as the Bible says: 'The slain of Jehovah shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the face of the ground.' -Jeremiah 25:29,33, AS.. Worms will not stop swarming over the millions of bodies until the last body is eaten up. Birds and beasts also will eat their fill of human flesh until nothing is left but white bones.. In their fear, what will people do to one another? What kind of plague will Jehovah bring upon those who fight against his people? When Armageddon begins, will there be any way for people to escape destruction?" (from a 1958 Watchtower publication, "Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained", pp207-210)
** "The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth .. the meek will wait upon the King and his visible princes in the earth to locate them and assign them their portion in the land.. They will gladly accept the grant of land that the King graciously makes to them. When Jehovah God in ancient days settled the nation of Israel in the Promised Land of Palestine, he aided them by his miraculous power to dispossess the wrongful, wicked occupiers thereof, the religious demon worshiping heathen. He thrust out the Canaanites .. in their place he located the Israelites who kept covenant with him. The religious worshipers or false gods were not let possess the land, but those who worshiped the true and living God Jehovah were planted in the land." (from a 1945 Watchtower publication, "The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth", pp 24-27)
Edited by - Focus on 16 July 2002 18:54:55
12
REFUTING & HAMMERING JW-Defenders on BBC
by Focus in
1. jw
2. friends
click on this line to read the b.b.c.

panorama expose on the spiritual paradise for pedophiles - the watchtower society!

hit the nail on the head from the howling and gnashing of teeth it has produced from amongst the jehovah's witless drones, who have email-bombed the b.b.c.
Focus

hmmm wrote:
Thank you Focus.
Just one question, though: Where do you stand on the claim that the WTS is a pedophile paradise? I'm not sure that came across as clearly as it could have
I thought so too... hmmm!
For a clearer rendition of my views on the Watchtower Society of Pedophiles and Pedophile-Enablers, please read:
PEDOPHILES are to the WATCHTOWER as BEES are to HONEY - Click here!
In it, and on other threads linked therefrom, one of the many spiritually-disgusting JW-apologists (F iend: I am having g eat tempo a y t oubles with my keyboa d as soon as I think of him) decided to argue the toss with me. Judge for yourself how well he did.
--
Focus
(Cut out the other eye too! Anti-Selective blindness Class)
12
REFUTING & HAMMERING JW-Defenders on BBC
by Focus in
1. jw
2. friends
click on this line to read the b.b.c.

panorama expose on the spiritual paradise for pedophiles - the watchtower society!

hit the nail on the head from the howling and gnashing of teeth it has produced from amongst the jehovah's witless drones, who have email-bombed the b.b.c.
Focus

Click on this line to read the B.B.C. PANORAMA EXPOSE ON THE SPIRITUAL PARADISE FOR PEDOPHILES - THE WATCHTOWER SOCIETY!
YOU KNOW THAT THE B.B.C. HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD FROM THE HOWLING AND GNASHING OF TEETH it has produced from amongst the JEHOVAH'S WITLESS DRONES, WHO HAVE EMAIL-BOMBED THE B.B.C. IN PROTEST - EXACTLY AS THEIR PEDOPHILE-ENABLING BOSSES REQUIRED THEM TO.... Enjoy their deep discomfort and absurd denials and buck-passing, wriggling and lying (especially when they attempt to get more credibility by denying ever having been a JW in any way, but somehow have intimate and detailed knowledge of current JW doctrines and teachings, including the "spin")... In doing so, the intelligent can see exactly why the JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES are the PARADISE on EARTH Organization indeed (just as they claim) - but FOR PEDOPHILES!
Click on this line to read TWO DOZEN WITNESSES SCREAMING 'FOUL PLAY' AT THE BBC FOR EXPOSING THE DIRTY SECRETS OF THEIR SPIRITUAL MOTHER!
Here follow extracts from a bevy of angry JW denials from the B.B.C. feedback page - SHAME ON THEM FOR THEIR GULLIBILITY, WICKEDNESS OR STUPIDITY (I know not which). My comments are capitalized and interposed.
I have read a lot about Bill Bowen recently, prior to and after the programme relating to Jehovah's Witnesses was shown on the same matter in America. It is my belief that Mr Bowen has his own agendas and is not seeing the full picture here. I also believe that most information, usually pitted against this TINY organisation, is propaganda promoted by mainstream religion and governments who would rather shut the witnesses up for speaking the truth. Haven't they been picked on in many countries being treated differently from other religions? I wonder why? Why such a huge interest in such a small group? Even if they do have (former abusers) a register, surely that is the responsible thing to do? Isn't that what our government already does anyway? Are the witnesses behaving any differently to our home secretary? I do not think so! I am not a Jehovah's Witness and furthermore I admire these very brave people for telling the truth about our world's governments and religions who have acted in collaboration to murder people in wars for decades!! Perhaps that would be a more fitting expose for Panorama viewers?
SURE, SURE, THIS COMPLAINANT IS NOT A JW. ;-) AND THE WATCHTOWER IS FAR FROM A TINY ORGANIZATION - INDEED, THEIR OWN LITERATURE HAS BOASTED OF HUGE INCREASES IN NUMBERS FOR MOST OF THE LAST HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE YEARS. THEY NUMBER OVER SIX MILLION NOW, AND THERE ARE ANOTHER TWELVE MILLION "INTERESTED ONES" OR MINOR DEPENDANTS BEING GROOMED FOR BAPTISM. CULT PROFITS ARE ESTIMATED TO EXCEED US$ TWO THOUSAND MILLION PER YEAR. THE ABSURD CLAIM THAT THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES TELL THE TRUTH - THIS ORGANIZATION IS FIRMLY BASED ON THE "BIG LIES" DOCTRINE - AND THAT SO DO THEIR ELDERS, IS EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE..
As one of Jehovah's witnesses it is with both a mixture of sadness and anger that I write to you. I think it is almost deplorable the way you have misconstrued our beliefs into this little section of do's and don'ts, when in actual fact we are nothing like that. We all have our own personal reasons for being one of Jehovah's witnesses and we respect the decisions that are made by the "body" of elders in our own congregation.. I think it would be beneficial to you if someone came to one of our meetings, and had a chat with a couple of us, as it seems your info came from this Bill guy, and it is plainly obvious even to the casual observer that he has negative attitude to us now. Therefore your supposedly "factual" programmes will now lose whatever credibility they may have once enjoyed, because of your "let's ask any old Joe for info". Your idea also that we only use certain scriptures from the bible, that we have specifically chosen, is also wrong. It takes our beliefs totally out of context. We use the entire bible to get an answer for a question, and sometimes we have to make up our own minds on matters, according to our "Bible-trained conscience".. We have a better chance of doing so if we are following the rules, so to speak. On the subject of child molestation I won't comment as I am not an elder and therefore it is not for me to do so as I don't have all the facts, but to be honest with you, I really don't want too. If I dwelt constantly on the negatives in life then I would probably end up mad. To gain more information then please do come to one of our meetings, any and all that read this, just so that you can get the correct information for yourselves. Indeed that is the reason we go from door-to-door, to tell people the "good news", and to find out if they want a better future. I mean, don't we all? We don't go out to proselytise, or to convert, it is a personal choice if people want to join us.
THIS COMPLAINANT ADMITS HE CAN'T EXPRESS OPINIONS BECAUSE HE/SHE IS NOT A JW ELDER, AND THAT HE/SHE HAS SURRENDERED DECISION-MAKING TO THE ELDERS. EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE. OF COURSE HE/SHE DOES NOT WANT TO DWELL ON "NEGATIVES" WHEN THEY INVOLVE THE WATCHTOWER - BUT DWELLS **ONLY** ON NEGATIVES ("THIS WICKED WORLD HAS NO HOPE") WHEN GOING DOOR-TO-DOOR SPREADING WATCHTOWER PROPAGANDA! WHAT SHAMEFUL HYPOCRISY AND DOUBLE-STANDARDS - EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
Can I just say I am a Jehovah's Witnesses and we are usually portrayed as a mysterious sect. In fact we are nothing of the sort. All I can say is that you should perhaps get a real elder to speak for our organisation, not an apostate "former elder" Bill Bowen. I feel it is nothing but a way to get some publicity. Jehovah's Witnesses were the first people on the scene at the World Trade Center and escorted many people to safety. We are a peaceful organisation who don't go to war and kill other humans.. if you had researched better you would uncover real truths and not just the minor numbers of wicked people who claim to be real Witnesses.
THE LUDICROUS CLAIM ABOUT THE 9/11 ATTACK SHOWS HOW BRAINWASHED ARE THE DUBS. WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED AT N.Y. BETHEL THAT DAY IS VERY, VERY DIFFERENT - THEY BOLTED ALL THE DOORS, THINKING THAT ARMAGEDDON HAD COME! WHEN THEY REALIZED THEY WERE WRONG (YET AGAIN) IS THAT THEY SENT OUT SOME DRONES TO DISTRIBUTE WATCHTOWER LITERATURE TO THE DAZED SURVIVORS (STANDARD JW TECHNIQUE - MAKE CONVERTS WHILE PEOPLE ARE VULNERABLE). THE BELIEF THAT THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES' ORGANIZATIONAL GOOD NAME NEEDS DEFENDING AT ALL COSTS IS EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
I always looked to the BBC for outstanding broadcasting and factual. Unfortunately I see I was sadly mistaken. I too am an ex-elder but not a disgruntled one. What you have written is so far from the truth it is unbelievable. Absolute rubbish. In such cases the first thing that is done is to report the matter to the police and have the child removed from danger. Now one has to question whether all of your articles are even based on fact or just something your reporters wrote while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or marijuana?
HOW COME PROOF THAT HAS STOOD THE TEST OF "BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT" IN COURTS OF LAW IS "ABSOLUTE RUBBISH"? BECAUSE THE JW IS TRAINED SPECIFICALLY TO DISTRUST AND DISBELIEVE ALL NON-WATCHTOWER SOURCES OF INFORMATION - EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
I am a Jehovah's Witness and I am very disappointed in the BBC's coverage last night. I never thought they could be so 'one-sided' and biased to Jehovah's Witnesses. You could tell how the presenter hated the Witnesses and wasn't really interested in the truth but only interested in trying to spread lies! Our Elders in the congregation are doing a great job to keep the congregation "clean" morally, physically and spiritually. The programme was cut and taken out of context several times, for example when the elder from the congregation and the member of the governing body spoke to the camera. I would like to know how much they really cut out of the programme to prevent Jehovah's Witnesses making a defence of themselves! We are one of the most well behaved, morally clean people on earth, we don't claim to be perfect or superhuman, but we are all trying. We will not easily be stumbled but a weak attempt by the BBC to try to expose something that does not exist within our organisation. The BBC have let the public down again on not telling the truth, but lies with no fact at all. I would suggest a member of the BBC would try living within the Jehovah's Witness community for a year to see what we are really like, then they can make a better judgement on us!!
THAT THOSE WHO CRITICIZE THE JW ORGANIZATION ARE "LIARS" AND TO BE DISCREDITED AT ALL COSTS IS EXACTLY THE SHAMEFUL CONDUCT TO WHICH THE VICTIMS OF CHILD ABUSE WERE SUBJECTED BY THEIR JW ELDERS. EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
I am a Jehovah's Witness and I have read through your comments and other links and I think that it is very sarcastic and you really ought to think about what you are doing and where you get info from and if it's reliable.
THAT BECAUSE THIS HAS NOT YET HAPPENED TO THEM, IT HAS NOT HAPPENED AT ALL, IS THE THINKING UPON WHICH A PEDOPHILE-ENABLING ORGANIZATION LIKE THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES ACTIVELY RELIES. EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
I didn't watch the programme... but as one of Jehovah's Witnesses I have never know of one child being abused in 25 years.. if you know the policy of the Watchtower you wouldn't take ex-Jehovah's Witnesses' words on this subject. Disgruntled Jehovah's Witnesses are really hateful people who are not JW for the most part because they got disfellowshipped for their misconduct. But this is to be expected - when people don't get their way they like to make trouble for the rest. But nothing can stop Jehovah because he's bigger than the lot :)
AGAIN, MUCH OF THE SAME - ATTACK THE MESSENGER AS BEING EVIL, DO ANYTHING TO DISCREDIT THE FACTS RATHER THAN FACE THEM - A TYPICAL BRAINDEAD DENIAL, COUPLED WITH THE THREAT THAT JEHOVAH IS GOING TO COME AND SLAUGHTER ALL WHO OPPOSE THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES! THINK OF THE FEAR ON THE PART OF THE CHILD ABUSE VICTIM, EXPOSED TO SUCH FOULNESS AN ABILITY TO JUDGE THE PROGRAMME WAS EXPRESSED BY THIS JW POSTER WITHOUT EVERY HAVING WATCHED IT - AND THINK HOW ATTRACTIVE JUST SUFFERING IN SILENCE BECOMES, WHERE THE ALTERNATIVE IS PUBLIC RIDICULE, BEING ACCUSED OF LYING, BEING REMOVED FROM GOD'S PEOPLE, BEING SHUNNED FOREVER BY ONE'S FRIENDS AND LOVED ONES - AND THEN SENTENCED TO DEATH AT ARMAGEDDON. EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
I don't really think this is Panorama fodder at all, as we are talking about a policy needing some rework, NOT a shocking revelation of systematic child abuse being uncovered in the much hated Jehovah's Witnesses organisation. So why sensationalise it and make it seem a bigger issue for the public at large than it really is? Or is there something more to this, maybe even something personal going on here, and Panorama is the vent for that? I guess we will never know the answer to that.
TO DENY THAT TWENTY-THREE THOUSAND KNOWN JW PEDOPHILES IN JUST THE EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICAN REGIONS IS AN IMPORTANT ISSUE REVEALS THE JW "MINDSET". EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
I have been a Jehovah's Witness for 20 years and I have just read the comments regarding your programme. I am repelled that you are irresponsible enough to put out a programme that is obviously one-sided and will have an deep impact on the lives of many Jehovah's Witnesses who are law-abiding citizens and abhor the acts of paedophiles. If this leads to any vigilantism then I hope you are prepared to take the responsibility for the safety of innocent people.
THE TOTAL FAILURE - NAY, INABILITY - TO DEAL WITH OR EVEN RECOGNIZE FACTS IS A JW HALLMARK. THIS WRITER CARES LITTLE FOR THE MOLESTED CHILDREN COMPARED TO HIS OR HER FEAR OF ANTI-JW ACTIVITY! EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
I personally condone such evil acts involving any form of immorality. To even suggest that Jehovah's Witnesses would cover up such behaviour as child molestation should be treated as slander. Ultimately of course, it brings reproach on the name of God himself.. Obviously your informants are former Jehovah's Witnesses, who for some perverted reason want to get their own back. Jehovah is a God of truth and he will ensure that the truth is told.
THAT THE WATCHTOWER FORBADE HIGHER EDUCATION AMONG JWs IS ILLUSTRATED BY THIS DULLARD USING "CONDONE" RATHER THAN "CONDEMN", THEREBY SAYING THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT HE/SHE INTENDED. AND THE THREAT TO THE WHISTLEBLOWER - THAT BY GOING TO THE POLICE THEY ARE BRINGING REPROACH ON THE NAME OF GOD HIMSELF - IS EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
I think that you need to talk to someone like me and find out the truth about the organisation. I am still a Jehovah's Witness and I would not want to leave for anything! The people on the programme were very stupid not to use their own common sense and go to the police. If they were true Witnesses then they would have trusted in Jehovah and done what's right.. I also feel the reporters needed to get a more rounded out view of the protection plan.. As for association outside the congregation: what was stated in the programme was not true. I have been a Jehovah's Witness my whole life and I have always had friends that are not of my religion. We need to be balanced if we are to teach people about the truth. The programme only focussed on cases that were handled badly. Not everyone who has been abused has left the congregation as a result. I hope that my few comments have given a better perspective of how things work.
TO CALL THE CHILDREN WHO WERE VICTIMS OF THE ABUSE "STUPID" FOR OBEYING THEIR PARENTS AND ELDERS AS THEY WERE TRAINED FROM BIRTH TO DO, AND PUTTING THE CULT FIRST, AS THEY WERE ALSO TRAINED FROM BIRTH TO DO, IS TYPICAL JW RUTHLESS, SAVAGE HEARTLESSNESS WHEN FORCED TO DEAL WITH THE CRIMES OF THEIR OWN FILTHY CULT! EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
I watched the Brass Eye programme about paedophilia when it was aired some while ago. I am sorry to say that I found that programme, with all its blatant satire, a lot more believable than the BBC programme. Try harder next time, or I will start going to ITV for my news and documentaries.
"IF IT IS NOT IN 'THE WATCHTOWER', THEN IT IS NOT TRUE." AND THE SARCASM AND TRIVIALIZATION OF DEEP JW FAILINGS IS EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
It saddens me to think that the organisation that has helped me through so much in my life has come under such brutal attack! I am 16 years old and I have dedicated myself as a witness because I love Jehovah and the people within the congregation.. It was a shock to see how much your programme has twisted the truth and it is very much one-sided. You did not mention that we do a lot of good, for example we were the first people on the scene of the terrible terrorist attack in America. This programme did not once interview a Witness who was STILL within the organisation but focused on the ex "this and that". It's terrible! How on earth are people meant to believe this when it's not even balanced!? Even with the twisted stories being told about Jehovah's Witnesses I continue to hold my head up high and continue to serve the God that I love so much.
TYPICAL BRAINDEAD JW RESPONSE, EXTRAPOLATING WILDLY FROM THEIR OWN ROSE-TINTED VIEW OF THE ORGANIZATION... AND TRULY IDIOTIC TOO. THE PROGRAMME TRIED HARD TO INTERVIEW ON CAMERA WITNESSES STILL WITHIN THE ORGANIZATION - TED JARACZ, J.R. BROWN, PAUL GILLIES, THE SCOTS PRESIDING OVERSEER AND SO ON - ALL REFUSED, OR WHEN BUTTONHOLED JUST RAN AWAY AFTER UTTERING A FEW TRITE WORDS. CLEARLY THIS WRITER WAS BOTH BLIND AND DEAF - OR A LIAR. SUCH INABILITY TO SEE THE OBVIOUS FACTS IS EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
Jehovah's witnesses do not protect child abusers. Where did you get your sources?? You're misleading people!!!! They are known for good, but no one ever picks on that, they only look for faults! If someone is doing something bad they will look into it and will only remove from the congregation if they have proper evidence or that admits what they are doing and does not repent.. Jehovah does not allow this forever and will see to it that it being removed in his own time and will get what they deserve. Now that person is not a member of Jehovah's Witness. Even our literature in the past have shown we are not child abusers
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES ARE KNOWN FOR DOING GOOD? WHERE??? FOR ONE OF THE RICHEST ORGANIZATIONS IN THE WORLD, THEY DO NO CHARITY WHATSOEVER - SHAMEFUL. SUCH LITTLE CHARITY AS IS DONE, IS BY INDIVIDUAL JWs, WHO ARE ACTUALLY GOING AGAINST THE TEACHINGS OF THE WATCHTOWER, WHICH STRONGLY DISCOURAGE CHARITABLE GIVING EXCEPT TO OTHER JWs AND TO THE SOCIETY ITSELF. AND ALSO THE "LEAVE IT TO JEHOVAH TO CLEAR IT UP" NONSENSE - EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
Nice actors and bitter disfellowshipped people - where'd you find them? I cannot and will not believe that Jehovah's Witnesses are capable of hiding a crime so great. I suspect that most of your so-called victims are just bitter people who got disfellowshipped (ie chucked out) for doing something wrong themselves. This is outrageous, and the people of Jehovah's Witnesses will not stand for such a slur! What's the matter? Run out of Catholics to accuse? Decided to pick on another already unpopular religion to boost your failing ratings? All of these people may, indeed, have been abused, and my sympathy goes to them if this is the case (can't you tell), but I refuse to believe that supposedly strict Jehovah's Witness elders that won't allow their daughters' friendship outside the congregation (And DON'T call it a church, because it's NOT) would abuse that child.
WHAT ACTORS WERE USED? THE PEOPLE IN THE PROGRAMME, INCLUDING THE POLICE VIDEOS, WERE NOT ACTORS. THE "LET US PUNISH THE VICTIM FURTHER" ATTITUDE EXHIBITED BY THIS SHAMEFUL WRITER SERVES TO TERRORIZE AND SILENCE THE VICTIM, EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
Once again, sensationalism takes precedence over the facts. I doubt very much if the BBC would broadcast a fictitious program about itself made by ITV would it? It's all about proper perspectives. I am very disappointed in the BBC, usually a bastion of journalistic truth.
SINGULARLY, THEN, THIS WRITER PROVIDES NO FACTUAL REBUTTAL WHATSOEVER - IT IS ALL ABOUT SENSITIVITY AND PERSPECTIVES, NOT "FACTS" OR "RIGHT AND WRONG"! EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
Panorama and the BBC are correct to address this issue because the Christian church today is full of paedophile priests and Pagan practices and unbiblical teachings, but the information you have based your findings on are totally and utterly untrue. I have close friends who are Jehovah's Witnesses and they are not shocked at all that this programme is coming on TV because Jehovah's Witnesses have been told to expect persecution as it says in the Bible "many people will rise against you, and will bring tribulation and persecute you". There are people who are expelled from the congregation for committing sin against God and not been repentant. However, there are a few people who have been Jehovah's Witnesses for many years but start to bend the truth and twist it so that it suits their way of living. These stay for a while in the congregation in order to corrupt people's minds with untruths. This is called Apostacy, and these apostates either leave of their own free will or are dis-fellowshipped by the congregation. These apostates go on a mission to corrupt people's minds and turn everyone possible against Jehovah's Witnesses! These people would like to see Jehovah's Witnesses lose their rights to study the Bible together, and to tell other people about what the Bible says is going to happen in the future. These apostates who may have joined the Christian church or any other religious organization have seen that the church has come under observation that there are paedophile priests, so they are now trying to get the Jehovah's Witnesses under the spotlight and into the news in order to give them a bad name. Everybody knows Jehovah's Witnesses are not a secret cult, they come knocking at your door willing to tell you everything about their religion and will be pleased to answer any question you throw at them. They have doors slammed in their faces but they have to endure that persecution. The whole programme will most likely have interviews with people saying they are former Jehovahs Witnesses but if the BBC actually interviewed the Jehovah's Witnesses you will get an accurate description of what the society is about..
LET US BASH THE OTHER RELIGIONS, CRITICIZING THE MOAT IN THEIR EYES WHILE IGNORING THE BEAMS IN OUR OWN, SLANDER THOSE WHO WHISTLE-BLOW TO SAVE LIVES, AND CLAIM "PERSECUTION POINTS" WHEN WE GET JUST A FRACTION OF WHAT WE DESERVE FOR REPEATEDLY DISTURBING AND UPSETTING PEOPLE IN THEIR HOMES - WHAT AN ADVERTISEMENT FOR THOSE WHO CLAIM TO BE "GOD'S PEOPLE"! THE ATTRIBUTION OF FOUL MOTIVES TO VICTIMS IS EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
The FACT (it's in the dictionary, look it up) is that the elders could get sued by the person, if the accusation is false. You can't expect anyone to risk this.
THE RUDENESS AND ARROGANCE OF THIS POSTER IS PAINFULLY EVIDENT. DO YOU BLAME THE YOUNG GIRLS AND BOYS FOR FEARING DISCLOSING ANYTHING TO ELDERS WHO DISPLAY THE MONSTROUS ATTITUDES OF THIS JW-DEFENDER? EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
(T)o have a child protection policy is nonsense.. Sadly Panorama has sunk to the gutter press level. TRY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH if you want real sleaze. What hypocritical behaviour. You will show Panorama on a subject like this then you will show EastEnders with premarital sex alluded to, violence in films and other programmes, drug abuse, horror films, SEX because late at night people watch it. SHAME on you all. YOU and your programme budget must really be stuck for exiting stories. Deplorable.
ARGUMENT AD HOMINEM, ANALOGY AD ABSURDUM, STRAWMAN DEMOLITION... THE POOR EDUCATION AND THINKING EXHIBITED HERE ARE, SADLY, WHAT ANY VICTIM IS LIKELY TO FIND AMONG THE ELDERS, A COLLECTION OF MOTLEY ROOFERS, LAWNMOWER MEN AND "HOLIER THAN THOU" IGNORAMUSES - AND WHAT WILL MAKE IT HIGHLY UNLIKELY ANY JUSTICE WILL BE OBTAINED FROM SUCH FOOLS (OR WORSE). EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
To put a very important point clear, NOBODY is disowned by their family or fellow men in a congregation by reporting a perpetrator to the police. Everybody is responsible to protect children from such individuals and ANYBODY in a congregation would do so without hesitation.. How can anyone be so ignorant to generalise. Our elders are not representatives of God, they are fellow workers that do all the hard organisational duties in the congregation, many of them sacrificing their own time, they are labelled as servants and nothing more.. The policy also states that if there are two or more victims to one abuser this man is dealt within the congregation.. ELDERS ARE NOT POLICEMEN. They are men that give advice from the Bible, you can do whatever you want with it. It is shameful that in the year 2002 a media company can still fall short in getting their facts right.
THE FIRST ASSERTION IS A DOWNRIGHT LIE: DISOBEYING THE ELDERS WILL LEAD TO DISFELLOWSHIPPING, AND THEN TO LIFELONG SHUNNING. THE REST IS FLUMMERY - FOR EXAMPLE, THE SECOND SISTER IN THE PROGRAMME WAS THE SECOND VICTIM OF THE SAME PERPETRATOR IN THE SAME CONGREGATION, BUT THE ELDERS HUSHED IT UP AND SENT HER BACK FOR MORE RAPING. EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
To the researchers involved in investigating the Jehovah's Witness Case: It must be remembered that the information in your programme is taken very seriously by the public, hence any information obtained must be seriously considered as to its accuracy. Responsible reporters consider the effects and consequences that misunderstood information will have.
THE NOT-THAT-VEILED THREAT OF LEGAL CONSEQUENCES SHOULD THE REPUTATION OF JWs BE DAMAGED OR THEY SUFFER FROM VIGILANTE ACTION IS NATURALLY WHAT WOULD OCCUR TO THE WITNESS ELDER. PROTECTION OF CHILDREN IS FAR, FAR FROM HIS MIND! EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
What you failed to show now is what about all the abuse fellow Jehovah's Witness kids will receive at school from your single-sided programme. I'm sure if non-Jehovah's Witness children watched this all they would see is that we do nothing for abused children and that's all they would have learned from it. I feel you should have put more research into your programme and actually showed both sides of the story for how loving the organisation is - instead of just talking to ex-JW, real brothers. You have disappointed me BBC in your actions in the way you arranged your programme.
THE "FIX" TO THE BIG PROBLEM THIS GULLIBLE DUPE SEES IS TO HUSH-UP EVERYTHING, AND PRESENT THE "PRETTY, PRETTY" PICTURE AS PER WATCHTOWER PROPAGANDA. EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
You don't know what you are talking about. I am a Witness, and instead of picking at them, who do not, I repeat DO NOT TOLERATE CHILD MOLESTERS AND ABUSERS IN ANY FORM, why are you not looking and accusing the Catholic church, who just keep swapping their child molesting priests from one place to another? THEY are the ones who will not cooperate with police!
THIS OSTRICH-LIKE ATTITUDE - BURYING ONE'S HEAD FIRMLY IN THE SAND AND IGNORING THE PROVEN FACTS - IS EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
Your programme while obviously backed by someone disgruntled about this particular organisation did not put forward what the actual law was in this regard and whether they were breaking it as an organisation. I think any individual with something about him would feel better with a possibility of going to court knowing there was more than one witness with first hand evidence rather than as a third person taking one persons word against the other. It actually made me think... do we strongly advise the nearest responsible family member not under suspicion to take the responsibility for their family and report to the police in the first instance? What if the child, out of fear of the abuser or mischief withdrew the allegations permanently, possibly saying they had never confided in the 3rd party individual at all? Could a well meaning member of the public be had up for slander? Is there privacy a law in this regard? You have to respect the responsibility of the family to have chance to act first surely? I don't think my question is naive in this day and age?
THIS LEGALISTIC ATTITUDE - OBSESSING WHETHER THE WATCHTOWER BREAK THE LAW BY NOT WHISTLE-BLOWING - RATHER THAN QUESTIONING IF IT DID RIGHT IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE PRESENT AND FUTURE CHILD VICTIMS, IS TYPICAL. THE POSTER IGNORES THE FACT THAT THE ELDERS COULD HAVE WHISTLE-BLOWN ANONYMOUSLY IF WISHED. THIS INTROVERTED, BRAINWASHED AND SADLY ONLY-TOO-COMMON JW ATTITUDE IS EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
Sorry for SHOUTING. But, it can help with certain types of brain-atrophied moron Dub-dub, as are to be found in large numbers among "God's People" - EXACTLY WHAT HELPS MAKE THE WATCHTOWER A PEDOPHILE PARADISE.
--
Focus
(EXPOSE THE GREAT WHORE FOR EXACTLY WHAT SHE IS! Class)
Edited by - Focus on 16 July 2002 13:50:55
Edited by - Focus on 16 July 2002 19:54:46
9
JW PEDOPHILES Expose Themselves on Panorama
by Focus in
1. jw
2. friends
this young woman told them her father was sexually abusing her.

" and i said to them "well, i've already spoken to you and you've told me i'm a liar".. betsan powys (bbc reporter): the elders sent her home to her father.

her father - "the nice man" - was free to continue abusing her.
Focus

I have been involved in supplying material considered by the B.B.C. Panorama program. For me, it began with:
PEDOPHILES are to the WATCHTOWER as BEES are to HONEY - Click here!
Unfortunately, there are dozens of small errors in the downloadable transcript of the excellently researched, balanced broadcast. Below, I present an accurate version thereof, obtained from Prominent Bethelite of Usenet, and which I suggest you use for all purposes to prevent any JW claiming that the reporting was unreliable and so should be discredited (e.g., using "Jarrett" instead of "Jaracz"). We all know the JW hair-splitting and nit-picking and comma-balancing attitudes that their insane belief system and company force upon them.
I have much more from the same source on the Panorama program, which I will present here, and elsewhere, soon...
Bill's stated 23,720 is no longer accurate as being the number of those on the New York Bethel's "Let Us Shield Our Brother Pedophiles" register. The number has grown since he obtained the figures. Information on brand new pedophile-suspects are being appended to the register at the rate of five to ten per working day - none of which data is passed on to the police by Bethel. The time for a police raid is NOW, before an Andersen/Enron evidence-shredding exercise takes place among God's people.
The Watchtower Society and the Jehovah's Witnesses Cult is an embodiment of SPIRITUAL PORNOGRAPHY, a WOLFISH TRICK, a MOST FILTHY LIE, a CHEAT, a SCAM, a DISGUSTING ABOMINATION, a BLASPHEMOUS INSULT, a WICKED FRAUD, a DISGRACE, a SCANDAL, a PEDOPHILE PARADISE - and a DAMNED OUTRAGE from start to finish.
--
Focus
(Making Them "Face The Facts!" Class)
PS: Could AF, Farkel or Tina please respond here as I need to contact them about a mutual friend.
---------- CORRECTED TRANSCRIPT --------------------------------------------------
Programme Title: "Suffer the little children"
Programme Producer: PANORAMA BBC1 U.K.
Transmission Date: July 14 2002 10:15 p.m. BST
[INTRO]
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Two years ago elders from this church heard a shocking story. This young woman told them her father was sexually abusing her. The elders called her a liar.
ALISON COUSINS (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): What are you meant, meant to do then if he's doing something wrong? And they said "Come to us and we'll deal with it." And I said to them "Well, I've already spoken to you and you've told me I'm a liar".
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): The elders sent her home to her father. They didn't tell her that three years earlier he'd confessed to them that he was abusing her sister.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Tulsa, Oklahoma and a gathering of the church that let this happen. Over 6,000 Jehovah's Witnesses are in town for their District Convention. Panorama is here too. We're looking for answers from the leaders of an organization that's under fire, facing mountain allegations that it's shielding abusers, silencing victims and putting children at risk.
BILL BOWEN (JEHOVAH'S WITNESS ELDER 1984-2000): It's a world-wide problem that is of epidemic proportions within the organization and no one knows about it, unless your child is molested.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Stevenson is on the Ayrshire coast in Scotland. It's a quiet holiday resort, a close-knit town and home to a thriving community of Jehovah's Witnesses. Door to door service, Bible studies and conventions are at the heart of family life for this young woman. But now she's left the church which she says betrayed her. She doesn't want to be recognised. She had a strict religious upbringing, her parents wedded to the Biblical principle that the father is head of the household.
GIRL (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): We'd pray together, kind of thing, I mean we prayed before meals and we'd pray before going to bed, and ask God for help and ask God for forgiveness for anything we've done wrong that day. It was very strict. I was scared of my dad for years. I was really frightened of him.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): She and her sister spent hours playing alone. Their father taught them that outside influences were bad. He prohibited friendships outside the church. But, from the age of 11, her make-believe games hid a painful truth - her father had started to abuse her.
GIRL (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): I was in my bed one night and that's when my dad came through and started touching me and feeling me. I just lay there hoping that he'd go away.
GIRL (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY) [in Official Witness Statement at Selkirk's Police Office]: Over the years since I was 11 until I was 15 my dad had done things to me that he shouldn't have done like rub my breasts, finger me and try to have sex with me. I remember when we were in Perth we were staying in a tent. He started to touch me and he made me touch him, and he made me put his penis in my mouth and things like that.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Were you scared?
GIRL (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): Terrified! There was one thing my dad told me, if I'd ever told anyone about this he would break me apart.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): For years she kept quiet, but one Sunday, after a meeting at the Kingdom Hall, she asked to see church elders. She needed their help.
GIRL (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): And I just told them everything that happened.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Did they tell you that this was serious, that you should go to the police, that they would go to the police for you?
GIRL (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): No, they didn't tell me anything like that. They didn't make any mention of the police.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): They said they'd deal with it.
GIRL (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): Yes. After that they called my father in, and they had a very, very long chat with him. Then eventually they came out and we went home and that was the end of it.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): When confronted, Ian Cousins confessed he was abusing his daughter. He said he was sorry, so the elders sent him home with her. The abuse continued. Cousins was reproved or admonished publicly by the elders, but church policy meant that no one was told why, not even his younger daughter.
ALISON COUSINS (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): It was announced on the platform that Ian Cousins had been reproved, and after that I went to one of the elders and asked, well, "why has he been reproved?". And he said "It's because of something he did wrong" but he wouldn't tell me what it was.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Even when her sister moved out, sick of the abuse, Alison still didn't know why. She missed her sister and was lonely. With one daughter gone, Ian Cousins turned on the other. It all began with an innocent goodnight kiss.
ALISON COUSINS (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): I gave him a kiss, like a peck on the lips and then I tried to get up to walk away and he pulled me down and he forced his tongue through my teeth, my clenched teeth, and he tried to put the blame on me and said "Did you really think you should be doing that?"
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): He blamed you?
ALISON COUSINS (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): Yes.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): It wasn't long before the abuse got worse. One day her father was accused of assaulting one of Alison's friends. She had to do something but had no where to turn - nowhere, except the Kingdom Hall. She asked to see a church elder.
ALISON COUSINS (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): I told him everything that had happened and what my dad had done to me and he said that he didn't believe me at all and he said that I was a liar, and that my dad would never do such a thing and my dad was such a nice man.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Like her sister, she was sent home. Her father - "the nice man" - was free to continue abusing her. So she gave the elders an ultimatum: either they did something or she'd go to the police. They did nothing.
ALISON COUSINS (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY) [in Official Police Statement]: I have told the police about my dad because I am concerned that he has contact with other young girls through the church.
DETECTIVE SERGEANT WALLACE BURGESS (STRATHCLYDE POLICE): Some of these people gave good statements and very, very positive in their attitude in support of Alison and her sister. Other people felt that they didn't want to be involved and gave a negative statement and some people refused to speak to us altogether.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Why?
DETECTIVE SERGEANT WALLACE BURGESS (STRATHCLYDE POLICE): I've no idea why. They just refuse to speak to the police.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Were they Jehovah's Witnesses?
DETECTIVE SERGEANT WALLACE BURGESS (STRATHCLYDE POLICE): I believe they were.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): But they wouldn't help.
DETECTIVE SERGEANT WALLACE BURGESS (STRATHCLYDE POLICE): They wouldn't give a statement to us, no.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Only during the police investigation did the whole story become clear to Alison Cousins. Only now did she discover her sister had been abused too. Only now did she find out that her father confessed to elders 3 years earlier, yet no one had warned her, his next victim.
ALISON COUSINS (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): Nobody told me anything. They all basically kept it all under wraps and told nobody what had happened.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): What they did was keep a record of her father's name and confession on a church database - a register of suspected and convicted pedophiles to be monitored. We asked Alison Cousins to obtain a copy of her records using the Data Protection Act. There, in black and white, was proof that the Jehovah's Witnesses had known for 3 years that her father was a self-confessed pedophile. Yet, far from monitoring him, the elders twice turned a blind eye to his abuse of his daughters. When he confessed to church elders, Cousins got a mild rebuke. When he confessed in court, he got 5 years in jail.
DETECTIVE SERGEANT WALLACE BURGESS (STRATHCLYDE POLICE): I believe we were the last to know. They had told several people before coming to the police, and these people had not reported it either to the police or the social services. We have a duty to protect, and if we're not told we are unable to protect.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): New York, the capital of big business, and a fitting home for one of the largest and richest religious organizations in the world. From here the Jehovah's Witnesses control over six million members. From here, the world-wide headquarters in Brooklyn Heights, every policy, every guideline, is dictated. Visitors are welcome and one message is clear. In this organization you adhere to God's word. Every month 50,000 Bibles come off the press ready to be sold world-wide. But this too is where they keep records of suspected and convicted pedophiles in their ranks. Bill Bowen, a lifelong member, has resigned as an elder. He says the men at the top are protecting the church, not the children.
BILL BOWEN (JEHOVAH'S WITNESS ELDER 1984-2000): They do not want people to know that they have this problem, and by covering it up they just hurt one person. By letting it out, then they hurt the image of the church.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Elders must report abuse to the church's legal desk. Only if the law demands it must they contact the police. If it doesn't, they be told they have a moral duty to call them, but often it seems to stop here. It seems to go no further than the church's own secret database.
BILL BOWEN (JEHOVAH'S WITNESS ELDER 1984-2000): Every detail is written down about what happened, where it happened, when it happened, how it happened.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): So you're saying the organization has its own sexual offenders register if you like.
BILL BOWEN (JEHOVAH'S WITNESS ELDER 1984-2000): That's exactly right.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): That it's keeping to itself and not showing others.
BILL BOWEN (JEHOVAH'S WITNESS ELDER 1984-2000): Exactly right. These men remain anonymous to anyone outside the organization and anyone really inside the organization unless you're personally reporting the matter.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): So was this the policy back in Stevenson that let Ian Cousins continue to abuse his daughters? The elders have stepped down and refused to talk to us, so we asked the man sent here to sort things out. Hello, Mr Briggs. We're from BBC Panorama as you know.
JONATHAN BRIGGS (JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PRESIDING OVERSEER): I know that.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): We just want to ask you a few questions about the Ian Cousins Case.
JONATHAN BRIGGS (JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PRESIDING OVERSEER): It's reasonable to really actually consider the brothers and sisters in the congregation that have had to undergo all this pressure. So I would just leave it at that. That's all I have to say on the matter.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): The database, Mr Briggs, why should the Jehovah's Witnesses keep a database of men who have confessed to being pedophiles but the police aren't told? Do you think that's reasonable behaviour Mr Briggs?
JONATHAN BRIGGS (JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PRESIDING OVERSEER): [Declines to respond, turns and retreats into the Kingdom Hall]
[JULY 11 2002]
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): The latest name added to the list should be that of James Barrett. Three days ago, clutching his Bible, this elder from Rugby was convicted of indecently assaulting two boys and sentenced to two years in prison. The church was told of the allegations five years ago, but Barrett denied them and was allowed to remain an elder. So, how many names are on the secret database? We asked the headquarters in New York. They refused to tell us. "Focusing on numbers isn't meaningful," they said. After a lifetime in the church, Bill Bowen tells a different story. How many names do you suspect are on that list?
BILL BOWEN (JEHOVAH'S WITNESS ELDER 1984-2000): Twenty-three thousand, seven hundred and twenty.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): How do you know that?
BILL BOWEN (JEHOVAH'S WITNESS ELDER 1984-2000): I was contacted by sources within the church. I was given a figure of over 20,000. Two different sources came back to me and said that number is actually more specific and gave me a figure of 23,720. They told me that they had accessed the internal database and that figure was based on child molesters in the USA, Canada and Europe, and that's the figure that they were given.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Over 20,000 names on a secret database. That's why these people say the church has to listen. With Bill Bowen, they're calling for the Jehovah's Witnesses to come clean about their record on child abuse. His campaign, "Silent Lambs", has already heard from 5,000 victims. This candle-lit vigil is for them.
BILL BOWEN (JEHOVAH'S WITNESS ELDER 1984-2000): Or it's what they're doing, once it's found out, causing their own members to be deeply disturbed.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Heather Berry and her stepsister Holly Brewer have flown here from New Hampshire. The man who abused them has been gaoled for a minimum of 56 years. He was Heather's father. Now Heather and Holly are breaking new ground, they're taking the Jehovah's Witnesses to court.
HEATHER BERRY (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): I'm Heather from New Hampshire. I don't want to tell my story but I've heard the word "victim" too many times today, and all of us are standing out here today and we're standing tall and proud and saying this happened and that it can't happen and we're survivors, and we're fighting and we're not victims.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): They're the first of those survivors to take their fight to court. They're claiming that not only did the church do nothing when they were abused, it ostracized and punished the family when they called the police.
HEATHER BERRY (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): I'm very glad I came, and like I said, I would do it again, and again, and again, and as many times as it takes to get a change in the policies and things that they hide constantly.
HOLLY BREWER (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): I'm really glad that the policy was talked about so much today, that it's an actually policy, it's not just a few elders that want to hide things. It comes from higher-up.
HEATHER BERRY (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): It's a world-wide policy.
HOLLY BREWER (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): Yes.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): We asked the church for an interview to discuss the claims that they're putting thousands of children at risk. They offered us instead some video tapes. Here we have it, a box full of tapes in fact, Jehovah's Witnesses response, progressive understanding of pedophilia, education through publications, and one marked 'policies' and I'm told that's where we should get some answers. That night we watched the tapes, looking for those answers. In long letters, the organization had told us the welfare of children is of paramount concern to them, that they have a forceful child protection policy. We wanted to see it spelled out.
J.R. BROWN (WATCHTOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY'S OFFICIAL SPOKESPERSON): We've heard the suggestion that our policies may not be adequate to cover the problem of child molestation, but that's not the case all.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): The policy couldn't be simpler. The elders should deal with all allegations of abuse.
M.R. INFANTE (JEHOVAH'S WITNESS): I think that's a very good policy, that the elders essentially would take charge of the situation of reporting the abuse to the authorities.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): But the authorities they're told to contact aren't the police, it's their own legal desk.
J.R. BROWN (WATCHTOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY'S OFFICIAL SPOKESPERSON): The fact of the matter is, we have a very aggressive policy to handle child molestation in the congregation, and it is primarily designed to protect our children.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): So how aggressive is it in practice? Just over a year ago Bill Bowen rang the legal desk in New York asking how he should handle an allegation of abuse in his congregation. The advice he was given has little to do with protecting the victim. He was told to go back to the man accused.
REPRESENTATIVE AT THE LEGAL DESK AT WATCHTOWER HEADQUARTERS IN NEW YORK: You just him again, "Now, is there anything to this?" If he says "No" then I would walk away from it. Leave it for Jehovah. He'll bring it out.
BILL BOWEN (JEHOVAH'S WITNESS ELDER 1984-2000): Yep.
REPRESENTATIVE AT THE LEGAL DESK AT WATCHTOWER HEADQUARTERS IN NEW YORK: But don't get yourself in a jam.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): "Leave it for Jehovah". That, according to thousands of victims, is the Jehovah's Witness child protection policy laid bare. No one knows more about that than Sara Poisson. Holly Brewer and Heather Berry's mother knows her loyalty to the church cost her daughters dearly. Paul Berry, her husband, beat them. She suspect worse, that Heather was being sexually abused and went to the elders.
SARA POISSON (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): I could tell from their looks on their faces that I had done a bad thing, that I had spoken against my husband which is a bad thing. And so their solution was that I should be a better wife, and I should pray more. That was their solution, that's how I could stop him from battering us. I assumed they were right. It had to be right because they know everything because they're God's representatives on earth.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): She couldn't convince them, but she was convinced that Paul Berry was sexually abusing their daughter, Heather.
HEATHER BERRY (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): When I was about 3 years old I started displaying behavior that no 3 year old in their right mind would display. I was throwing stools out of 2 storey windows and I was, well, I went to Boston Children's Medical Hospital in the psychiatric ward when I was 3, because she found me stabbing myself with a screwdriver in the arm in the kitchen. He came to me in the black of night, Hands outstretched, there was no fight. The masked man slowly became familiar with my shape, Gently rubbing his hands on me, every nook, cranny and gape. My child, you are so sweet, So perfect and right, then I knew nothing but defeat. I tried not to think about the abuse as much as possible. I mean there was the physical abuse, there was the verbal abuse and there was the sexual abuse. And when none of it was happening, that was ideal, and that's what I tried to focus on the most.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): And all the while, you were going to the Kingdom Hall every Sunday.
HEATHER BERRY (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): We were.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): You were going to meetings during the week.
HEATHER BERRY (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): We were going out on door-to-door service.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Time and again, the girls were told to wait outside while their mother begged local elders for help. Time and again, they saw her sent home to pray harder and be a better wife. Holly, too, had her own story to tell, the story she'd kept secret from her mother, the story she knew by now the elders wouldn't want to hear. Her instinct was to tell the local policeman, but, after years in the church, she just couldn't.
DETECTIVE SERGEANT JACK ZELLER (KEENE POLICE DEPARTMENT, NEW HAMPSHIRE): Holly would actually tell me that she was very angry about things at home and she did on more than several occasions tell me that "Some day, Sergeant Zeller, I'm going to tell you something that happened to me" and I always told Holly, "When you're ready, I'll be there. You know where I am."
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Her mother saw the elders more than a dozen times, but remarkably it never strong Sarah Poisson to look for help outside the church. You can say that your children's lives are in danger, and in the same breath that you couldn't possibly go to the police. How can that be?
SARA POISSON (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): Because God would not want that. It would never have occurred to me, and even if it had, I would not have done it because he's a man. He's a baptized male and he's a ministerial servant and I was a woman and they're kids, and that's even worse than being a woman. "These things need to stay in this room" - I've heard that many, many times. "You need to pray about it more." I can show you my Bible, it's paper thin. I still have it. It's all worn out. I did a lot of praying.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Even after you had told them that her father was sexually abusing Heather, nothing changed?
SARA POISSON (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): No, no. Well yeah, things changed, they got a lot worse, for me.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): In the end, the decision was taken out of her hands. In school bruises were noticed on her children. Social workers were told. They gave her a stark choice, leave your husband or we take your children. But if she left him, she knew the church would cut her dead.
SARA POISSON (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): At that point, I had to make decision between God and my kids. And I knew.. well, at that time I knew, that if I chose my kids, I don't have prayer, but I didn't care anymore. So we lost everything in one day.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Sarah Poisson had no life outside the Kingdom Hall. When the congregation cast her out she had no choice but to move away. She didn't just lose every friend she had, overnight she was homeless, penniless, scraping a living to bring up her children. The friends they'd had, openly shunned them. But with the family now free of the church Holly could finally tell her mother the truth: her stepfather had abused her too. When he tried to gain access to her younger sister, Holly finally did what the elders hadn't - she walked into the local police station.
DETECTIVE SERGEANT JACK ZELLER (KEENE POLICE DEPARTMENT, NEW HAMPSHIRE): It was clear to me that it was a life's crossing, a road to cross. Never any doubt in my mind that Holly could do it. It was a tremendous effort on her part, and it smacked of raw courage from beginning to end.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): The Holly Brewer who walked into his office that day was a very changed, a very defiant young woman.
HOLLY BREWER (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): My earliest memory is like about 3 years old, my latest memory is 10 years old, and he gradually worked into being interested in me to full-blown sex, intercourse, over those years.
[2:47 p.m. MARCH 7 1997 Official Police Video]
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): It was a harrowing time. The police took Holly back to the house where the abuse had started.
HOLLY BREWER (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): He had a room that he had found in a very, very old house that was underneath the barn that you'd crawl through a hole to get to, and once you were in there, you were isolated from the entire house, and from everything, and that's where everything would go down.
[3:22 p.m. MARCH 7 1997 Official Police Video]
WOMAN POLICE OFFICER (NEW HAMPSHIRE POLICE): Would he kneel down on, next to you, or over you?
HOLLY BREWER (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): He'd like sit like this... and let me do..
WOMAN POLICE OFFICER (NEW HAMPSHIRE POLICE): All right
HOLLY BREWER (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): and then he'd lean over..
WOMAN POLICE OFFICER (NEW HAMPSHIRE POLICE): And did he tell you what he wanted you to do?
HOLLY BREWER (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): I knew after a while.
WOMAN POLICE OFFICER (NEW HAMPSHIRE POLICE): OK.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): She told the police exactly what Berry had wanted, of the brutal sexual assault she'd suffered throughout her childhood.
HOLLY BREWER (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): I had no vision of me growing up and being 16. I thought he was eventually going to kill me, you know - and then I'd be free and that's the way I looked at it.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): It's really hard to come back here now.
HOLLY BREWER (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): I know. He'd say things like "Thank you for obeying me" and he'd thank me for obeying him and reminding me of that word, that "obey" word. That was a big thing.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Paul Berry was confident Holly would never go to the elders. Apart from anything else, the Jehovah's Witnesses have a clear rule on sin. They need two witnesses or a confession before they'll take action. As Holly told her story, it seemed to police that this rule in a strict religious community would have let the abuse continue.
HOLLY BREWER (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): All the way up to here..
WOMAN POLICE OFFICER (NEW HAMPSHIRE POLICE): So, this is the same piece of material.. All right.
DETECTIVE SERGEANT JACK ZELLER (KEENE POLICE DEPARTMENT, NEW HAMPSHIRE): Sexual abuse of children is not to be tolerated, and I don't care what their reasoning was, it was faulted reasoning. They were wrong, and as far as I'm concerned they were criminally negligent. That's my take on it.
WOMAN POLICE OFFICER (NEW HAMPSHIRE POLICE): Even with just the child's word, with one witness, with just the mother's word, without the two witnesses their Bible tells them they need?
DETECTIVE SERGEANT JACK ZELLER (KEENE POLICE DEPARTMENT, NEW HAMPSHIRE): Well unfortunately most kids don't have several witnesses observing them get raped. That's an unfortunate part of it.
WOMAN POLICE OFFICER (NEW HAMPSHIRE POLICE): It took nearly 4 years for the case to come to court. Paul Berry faced 17 charges of aggravated sexual assault.
SARA POISSON (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): I was holding Holly's hand and she had a lot of pointy rings on, and she was squeezing my hand really tightly, and it took them a long time to get through the verdict because there were so many indictments, and when it was over my hand was all blood and I didn't even feel it. And it was so powerful to be believed.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): But not everyone did believe them, even after he was convicted by a jury on all 17 indictments. Two dozen members of the Kingdom Hall turned up at the sentencing hearing. They all appeared to give character statements for Paul Berry.
DETECTIVE SERGEANT JACK ZELLER (KEENE POLICE DEPARTMENT, NEW HAMPSHIRE): He had already been found guilty and they found room in their hearts to stand in front of that child and say we don't believe any of it. And what they were saying was, they didn't believe the child, they didn't believe in the system of justice, they didn't believe the judge, they didn't believe the jury, they didn't believe anyone - except themselves.
HOLLY BREWER (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): Everything they were saying was "He's such a fine worker, I've worked with him secularly and he always shows up to work on time, he's such a good worker." Everybody said that and also the second half was everybody started saying "He's baby-sat our kids hundreds of times. I would let him baby-sit our kids every day, and he's such a good worker." And I was just sitting there like.. he's not on trial for being a negligent worker.
DETECTIVE SERGEANT JACK ZELLER (KEENE POLICE DEPARTMENT, NEW HAMPSHIRE): I can't imagine how badly she must have felt not to have been believed by elders in her own close-knit community. What a horrible blow to a child this must have been. Shame, shame on them.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): But another serious accusation is levelled against Jehovah's Witnesses. In their efforts to cover-up abuse, they may even try to frustrate police investigations. In Birmingham, West Midlands police were told of a sexual assault by a Jehovah's Witness on a young boy. They asked local elders for help.
SERGEANT STEVE COLLEY (WEST MIDLANDS POLICE): They were very reluctant to give up any information towards me. It was an uphill battle so far as the church was concerned, with me, virtually at every turn. They actually said to me unless I provide two Jehovah's Witnesses who'd actually seen the offense, then as far as they were concerned the offense hadn't taken place.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): The boy was Simon Brady. He was just 9 when he was abused by a member of this Kingdom Hall. He felt he could tell no one.
SIMON BRADY We're taught if you go to elders, if you want to be believed or you have a complaint about someone, then there has to be more than one of you, there has to be two people. There has to be more than one witness, basically, you know. What can I say? They want more than one witness, you know.. every time I've gone to them, you know.. they wouldn't have believed me. Statement of Simon Andrew Brady, aged 18.
SIMON BRADY (in Official Police Statement): I recall that one of the brothers of the congregation, a man known to me as Jaswant Patty began to take an interest in me. I would have been 8 or 9 years old at the time.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Simon Brady's parents were going through a divorce. Jaswant Patty offered to help out, take him off his mother's hands.
SIMON BRADY (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): He'd take me for drives after the meetings, he'd take me home from the congregation, you know.. give me a lift home. I can remember on one occasion he took me to his sister's flat while she was away on holiday. He said we'd go in and we'd check his sister's flat, and there he really sexually abused me basically.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): What did he do?
SIMON BRADY (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): It was quite severe, to be honest with you, it was severe. So even now, to think of it, I don't.. you know.. it hurts now to talk about it, to be honest with you, and I've done that once already. I find it very hard to talk about it any more, basically. He dropped me off at home. I remember going to the bathroom and scrubbing with Dettol, because I felt dirty at what had happened.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): For years he said nothing, afraid the elders wouldn't believe him. When he finally did speak out, his instinct as a 9 year old proved right.
SIMON BRADY (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): It's not so much did they believe me. Did they want to believe me? They didn't want to believe me. I think in terms of my house, you know.. they weren't open-minded and I think they'd already made their mind up even before they got to my house.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): The police did believe him, and they tracked down a second boy who'd been abused by Patty. But what happened next caused them serious concern. An elder confronted the victim's father, calling the man's son a liar. The father complained to the police, who warned the elder to stay away from the victim's families. His excuse was that, as an elder, he had every right to investigate the case for himself.
SERGEANT STEVE COLLEY (WEST MIDLANDS POLICE): It was his duty to test the evidence prior to the court case. I advised him that if that sort of behaviour continued, then if an allegation had been formally made, then I would have to investigate that particular person for offenses to pervert the course of justice, and in fact witness intimidation. The conversation did get a little bit heated towards the end, but obviously I'd a duty to protect my complainants and witnesses to the case. I made sure and sent out the signal that I was prepared to protect them and take drastic steps, i.e. arresting people, if they breached that.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): In Birmingham, as in New Hampshire, the elders supported the accused. Even after Patty was convicted and sentenced to five years in jail they didn't waver. At the next meeting in the Kingdom Hall, the elders made sure the congregation knew where they stood.
SIMON BRADY (VICTIM OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PEDOPHILE-PROTECTION POLICY): There's Nice McGivern saying "As a body of elders - that's including every elder in Rubery - we feel as a body of elders that basically this man is innocent, we believe he's innocent, and the Bethel have informed us they will do everything in their power to help this man".
SERGEANT STEVE COLLEY (WEST MIDLANDS POLICE): I then made it my duty to actually speak to the Legal Services Team of the Bethel in London and voice my disquiet about the lack of co-operation I'd had from start to finish from this inquiry.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Under police pressure, the elders did apologize and were demoted though not sacked. The London headquarters, the Bethel, refused to discuss any specific case. They said this was because the elders had to respect the confidentiality of the victims. But the victims wanted answers. We again asked for an interview with their spokesman, Paul Gillies. When he refused we phoned him, told him we were recording and asked a simple question. Are elders told to report allegations of abuse to the police or not?
PAUL GILLIES (WATCHTOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY'S OFFICIAL SPOKESPERSON): The elders' guideline is: if you get any single allegation of child abuse come to your attention, phone this office.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Why phone this office? Why not phone your local police station?
PAUL GILLIES (WATCHTOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY'S OFFICIAL SPOKESPERSON): Well, you see the first thing is we have to make sure for the protection of the child, that's our first priority.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Is it the protection of the child... is it fair to ask you, isn't it the protection of the church that comes straight to mind there?
PAUL GILLIES (WATCHTOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY'S OFFICIAL SPOKESPERSON): It is the protection of the child. We have a child protection policy.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): It was a long conversation and we asked if he'd be prepared to answer the same questions on camera. He refused. So it was back to America and back to a Jehovah's Witness convention in Tulsa. We'd been told we'd find a member of the Governing Body here. Ted JARACZ is one of the men responsible for the church's child protection policy. For more than two months we've been asking them for an interview. We want answers to some simple questions. Why do they keep their database of suspected pedophiles secret? Why don't they report all allegations of abuse to the police? Why do they send children back to the arms of their abusers? They refused to talk to us. But here at last we had our chance. Mister JARACZ, tell me about the database. How do you justify keeping a list of people, men in some cases who have confessed to pedophilia, but you have not reported them to the authorities. What justification is there for you to keep that list?
TED JARACZ (MEMBER OF THE SUPREME GOVERNING BODY OF THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES): You know, you're from Britain. You have a privacy law. You have a directive from the European Union. You observe that, don't you?
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): So when allegations of abuse are made, is it alright to keep them private?
TED JARACZ (LEADING MEMBER OF THE GOVERNING BODY OF THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES): I think you were answered. That question was answered strictly to your satisfaction.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): Can you answer it now?
TED JARACZ (LEADING MEMBER OF THE GOVERNING BODY OF THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES): I'm not going to repeat. I'll just tell you exactly and you will see it in writing. It is all in print. You know the Bible says "Do not go beyond the things that are written."? We don't go beyond the things that are written.
BETSAN POWYS (BBC REPORTER): And that was that. No doubt, no second thoughts. Just a simple belief that Jehovah will sort it out, a belief for which others, younger and more vulnerable, may continue to pay a price.
BILL BOWEN (JEHOVAH'S WITNESS ELDER 1984-2000): They're living in denial, denial of what's happening to their children, and it's not a matter.. you see, if they accept that, then they accept that there is a problem. So rather than admit that there's a problem, they will just let children go on and continue to be molested and not do anything about it.
[END CREDITS]
(c)BBC MMII
Edited by - Focus on 16 July 2002 14:16:10