Hello There Oldhippie
Indeed we are quick to bring these news. Why do you try to portray those who fight to protect the children from the Watchtower as dishonest?
Here is the article translated to English. It will indeed be reported on the Silebtlambs site.
If there are any delays, it is because of me, as I haven't had time to monitor Ekstra Bladet the last weeks.
Bill doesn't speak Danish so he has to rely on me to translate it all for him. I have now translated this one and e-mailed it to him.
You know as well as I do that the way the WTS are handling pedophilia is very shameful indeed and this sad story will do nothing to change that fact. No ne has to try to make that fact any worse. No one has to lie to make that any blacker. Reality is more then enough. Anyway folks, enjoy:
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I lied about Jehovah sex
23 year old woman avoid slander charges from the sect
By Niels Westberg - 10:15 - 11. jun. 2004
Confronted with the risk of slander charges from the immensly rich Jehovah-sect the 23 year old Miriam Poulsen from the Faroe Islands suddenly has withdrawn her story about sex-abuse.
On April 29th the young woman told her story to Ekstra Bladet, that she as 12 years old had been subjected to sexual advances from a so called ?elder? in Jehovah's Witnesses in Thorshavn.
The sexual advances had allegedly happened while Miriam prepared for her baptism which was done in a basement under the Jehovah-sects kindom hall.
In this connection Miriam told about other girls in the sect who also had told her about sex abuse from men in the sect. All the girls were ashamed and feared reprisals, if they told their parents.
But all of this is lies and fabrications, she now says, and she has had to sign a declaration to Jehovah's Witnesses ? in order to avoid prosecution.
?Pure fabrication?
In the declaration from May 28, Miriam has undersigned that her story to Ekstra Bladet was ?pure fabrication? and that she has told the same to the Thorshavn police.
Chief of the Crime squad Bergleif Brimvik can not confirm this however, but he says that after having interviewed Miriam Poulsen don?t have reason to pursue the 10 year old case.
The sects spokesman in Thorshavn, Otniel Nygaard denied on Faroe Radio on May 29 that Miriam was threatened to withdraw her accusations.
- We have had no contact with her. It is our lawyer who has handled it, says the Jehovah spokesman.
- And he didn?t make any threats?
- No, we have only considered prosecuting for libel, says the spokesman in the radio interview.
Underground
Miriam Poulsen has gone ?underground? for a long time now says her friends, and Ekstra Bladet has been unable to get in contact with her for a month.
- That?s why we have to accept her personal written retraction of the story. If the whole thing was ?pure fabrication? we regret that we have passed on the detailed story, says Chief editor of Ekstra Bladet Bengt Falbert.
- We were in good faith. It was Miriam herself that came to us, and we had absolutely no reason to believe she was lying.
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Norm